Newsletter

Charles Leclerc wins ahead of Max Verstappen

Dhe half-time Formula 1 Grand Prix promises excitement for the second half. With his fifth victory in the premier class, Monegasque Charles Leclerc made up ground in a nail-biter game on world championship leader Max Verstappen, who was only able to finish second at the Austrian Grand Prix because Carlos Sainz’s second Ferrari rolled out on fire.

Leclerc is 38 points behind in second place in the World Cup standings. In Spielberg, Mick Schumacher made a kind of breakthrough. The German scored points for the second time in a week, his best Formula 1 result to date with sixth place. Sebastian Vettel suffered another debacle in the Aston Martin, finishing last in 17th place.

Leclerc mercilessly

Short, fast, tricky – the Red Bull Ring is made for big duels in front of a big crowd. The title candidates Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc felt transported back to their karting days, at least at the beginning of the eleventh World Championship round.

After losing the start, the Monegasque needed ten laps in the Ferrari before he was directly in front of his Dutch rival again. Leclerc, who once again could have lamented the lack of support from the Scuderia command post in Saturday’s sprint race, immediately went on the attack. The second surprise attack was successful – with a merciless maneuver he pierced the inside lane and took the lead.

Schumacher emancipates himself

The next tight but fair curve duel was between Lewis Hamilton and Mick Schumacher. The German driver from Haas-Ferrari had already fought a strong duel with the record champion in the sprint on Saturday and only had to let him go at the end.

Of course, Schumacher would have preferred a point win rather than recognition, but Hamilton had conceded the last point in eighth place. Also because the Haas racing team had previously failed to wave the faster Schumacher past teammate Kevin Magnussen.

The situation was the same in the race, again the Dane was initially allowed to keep his position – and Hamilton was able to pass both of them again. But Schumacher is emancipating himself more and more and can finally show his talent.

Verstappen lacks grip

In the first half of the race things got mixed up, which was due to the different tire strategies. Max Verstappen came into the pits after just 14 laps to get fresh tires. The clue to a two-stop strategy, or a feint?

To be on the safe side, leader Leclerc was given the signal to speed up in order to counter the Dutchman’s pit stop maneuver during his own pit stop and stay in the lead. Leclerc urgently needed a sense of achievement to believe again that he could still turn the title race.

During his pit stop on lap 26, he fell behind his opponent. But it only took him five laps to regain the lead, the red car had so much excess speed. Verstappen cursed the lack of grip, another tire change right after half of the race should relieve him of it. But that was just a wish.

Vettel pushed into the gravel

So Verstappen focused on keeping Lewis Hamilton behind him. The Mercedes driver drove a Silver Arrow that had been damaged after his accident on Friday and had been hastily reassembled. But the role as a hunter suits the Brit, he ended up third. Mick Schumacher also got along better and better as the race progressed, this time he didn’t have to ask permission to overtake his team-mate. He exploited a weakness in Magnussen and moved up to sixth place as he was clearly faster.

Sebastian Vettel, on the other hand, remained unlucky with the Aston Martin. The man from Heppenheim had laboriously worked his way up from the third-last starting position when Pierre Gasly, who was currently highly accident-prone, touched his racing car and caused it to spin. The Frenchman was given a five-second time penalty for this, but Vettel’s race was finally ruined.

At Sainz, the engine revs up

On the 50th lap, Charles Leclerc stopped for the second time and had to queue up behind Sainz and Verstappen again. Back on the track, he immediately put one fastest lap after the other. Less than five laps and he was back on Verstappen and then passed him for the third time in the race.

Carlos Sainz experienced a moment of shock in the second Ferrari. After an engine failure 13 laps before the end, he parks his car with a burning rear. Bitter for the winner of the previous week, who was about to pass Verstappen again for second place.

Leclerc and Verstappen used the subsequent neutralization to get fresh tires for the last ten laps. Which gave Red Bull a chance to win again at the restart, especially since Leclerc spoke of a “strange feeling” with his accelerator pedal, which apparently got stuck again and again. But it was enough for the Monegasque. Ferrari trembled to victory with just a second and a half left. “Our duel will continue,” promised Verstappen.

The Formula 1 boom also continued in Austria, with more than 300,000 spectators over the race weekend, 105,000 on Sunday alone. With the naked eye it could be seen that about half of them wore the Dutch Oranje.

The self-proclaimed “Orange Army” apparently brought with it a dark side in addition to the great enthusiasm and the party atmosphere. Racist, homophobic and sexist statements and incidents are said to have taken place in the grandstands and campgrounds. Female fans in particular complained of massive harassment. Formula 1 immediately condemned this in a statement and announced clarification. Lewis Hamilton was “disgusted and disappointed” by this behavior.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending