Songs of Joy Fill the Air at the Red Bull Ring for the Sprint Race

Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 and Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB19 battle for track position into turn one at the start during the Sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on July 01, 2023 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo: Mark Thompson | Getty Images)

SPIELBERG, Austria – Contrasting the beautiful skies of the previous day, Mother Nature has made it five race weekends in a row to have had some sort of rainfall during track activity. With the new Sprint Weekend format, the Saturday sessions were basically a standalone event within the Grand Prix weekend. While Friday’s qualifying set the field for Sunday’s Grand Prix, the qualifying session today set the field for the Sprint Race that shortly followed.

Both sessions were a mixture of damp track driving that turned into some sort of dry running. Though for the Sprint Qualifying session, which was supposed to go from Medium in SQ1 and SQ2 before switching to Softs for SQ3, teams were given free rein as to which tires they would want to use in the ever-changing conditions during the qualifying sessions.

While Friday’s session was highlighted due to track limits, the three sessions Saturday didn’t see the same high amount of deleted lap times as the same before. However, there was still drama. In SQ1, teams were split between running Intermediate tires, Soft tires and Medium tires. Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz had a bit of worry when he had to deal with a brake-by-wire, which sidelined him in the garage for a decent amount of the session. McLaren’s Lando Norris found himself on the top of the timing sheets for a bit during the session as well. But that was soon gone when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez both lowered the fastest time of the day, setting a higher benchmark.

But then came the drama of the session, in two different ways. Both Ferrari drivers needed to make it into the next round of the session, which they both did. First up, Charles Leclerc squeaked through to make it into the 2nd round while his teammate Sainz put down an insane one-and-done lap to put himself at the top of the timing screens, which put him comfortably into the next round and a threat for the rest of the day. But while there was elation for Ferrari for making it into the next round, Mercedes found themselves on the back foot. Lewis Hamilton did not make it through the first round while possibly dealing with hydraulic issues in his machine.

Hamilton was joined not making it through SQ1 with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and William’s Logan Sargeant.

A bit less drama showed up with SQ2. Verstappen and Sainz started the session where they ended the last one, but with Verstappen ahead, while the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll sandwiched the McLaren of Norris following behind. However, it continued to be a session to forget for Mercedes as George Russell found himself unable to make it through the round. He couldn’t make a lap due to an apparent steering rack issue.

Russell, along with the Williams’ of Alex Albon, the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the AlphaTauri pair of Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries did not advance.

The Red Bulls went full-form in the final round at their home track. Perez, who has found himself on the back foot during the past few races, found some form and found himself up there with his teammate Verstappen, who set a blistering lap to grab the pole for the Sprint Race. But in more of a surprise, Norris put his McLaren in third and Nico Hulkenberg pulled his Haas into a nice spot sitting fourth on the grid with the cooler temps and shorter runs. The Ferrari pair locked out the third row and the Aston Martin pair did the same thing behind them. Finally, the Alpine of Esteban Ocon and the other Haas of Kevin Magnussen rounded out the Top 10.

Finally came time for the Sprint Race, and it wasn’t as dry this time around. The skies again opened up and the dry track from the qualifying session was washed away. While he did qualify sixth during the qualifying session, Ferrari’s Leclerc received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Piastri, dropping him to ninth.

In the lead-up for the Sprint Race with steady rain falling, any sort of recon laps were muted with drivers and teams trying to figure out if the track was dry enough for dry tires or if they should stick with Intermediate tires. When the tire covers finally got removed, 19 of the 20 runners for the Sprint decided to start the race with the Intermediate tires due to the conditions while the Alfa Romeo of Bottas decided to start with Medium tires.

The grid was cleared and all that was left were the cars as they headed out on their formation lap. Because of how damp it was, the Alfa Romeo team called Bottas back into the pits to go to the Intermediate tires. With the field now in their grid spots and Bottas in the pits, the lights went out and away they went for 24 laps around the Red Bull Ring with no mandatory pit stops outside of possible stops to take off of the Intermediate tires.

While Verstappen had a decent start off the line, Perez got the better of him and made it past him through Turn 1. Up the hill to Turn 3, Verstappen attempted to get past, but Perez squeezed him down to the grass. However, Verstappen wasn’t finished as he sent it into Turn 3 and just about parked it to make sure he would get the lead from his teammate. But the biggest loser in that was Norris, as he was shuffled down the order.

Perez then got jumped into Turn 4 with the Haas of Hulkenberg moving his way into 2nd. And while in the rear, the two Mercedes drivers who started in the back made their way through the back half of the field with the Ferrari of Leclerc unable to make many more moves to the front of the field. All the while, Verstappen kept pushing his car further and further ahead.

However, as time passed with the rain slowly going away, the conditions of a considerable dry line were being formed and drivers had to find spots where they could confidently use their Intermediate tires. After some time, the heroic efforts of Hulkenberg in his Haas slowly faded away as both Perez and Sainz made their way around the man who has never obtained a podium in F1.

With just over half of the race done, it came time for a bit of strategy as the conditions of the track moved towards a shift to dry tires. The first team to make the switch to a dry set of Soft tires was Mercedes and Russell, and with that, a flurry of teams made the switch while Race Control announced that it had become dry enough for DRS to be enabled.

A majority of the field made a switch over to dry tires while the top 8 — the Red Bulls, Sainz, Aston Martins, Norris, the Alpines and Bottas — stuck it out to the end on Intermediates. With their dry tires, the race was on with the Mercedes duo forcing their way through the field. Albon in his Williams tried his best to keep everyone up, but with the drying track, the straight-line speed advantage could only be held onto for so long.

But with a 20-second advantage in hand, Verstappen crossed the line after 24 laps ahead of his teammate and Sainz. The Aston Martins followed with the Haas of Hulkenberg on a set of dry tires making inroads up the grid. Ocon held off a charging Russell as they closed out the points-paying positions.

Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing and The Netherlands during the Sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on July 01, 2023 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo: Peter Fox | Getty Images)

With the race over, it becomes a question if there’s even more of a rift for the Red Bull pair after their close encounters in the opening lap. Or, can the Ferraris can continue their pace to put a fight up for Verstappen in the Grand Prix?