Austrian Grand Prix

Carlos Sainz went from first-time Formula One winner to non-finisher in the space of a week on Sunday after his Ferrari's engine blew just as he was set for ...

”It is heartbreaking but we will need to keep pushing, turn the page and it is still a long season ahead.” ”It is more difficult to take because we were about to cut the points to the leaders of the championship, both Max and Red Bull, we were about to do a very big result for the team,” said Sainz, fourth in the standings. I think it would have been an easy one-two today.”

It was a heartbreaking moment for Carlos Sainz. In the closing stages of the Austrian Grand Prix, he looked set to finish second, but his engine went up in ...

He needed a moment to unwind, possibly realising that the battle for the title is now well and truly lost. A second place seemed a certainty, but that was not counting on the Ferrari engine. On Friday the Spaniard was slightly slower than his teammate, on Saturday he did everything he could to make up for that and on Sunday he saved his tyres to come back at the end of the race.

Leclerc is now second in the fight for the 2022 Drivers' title but Verstappen has a clear lead.

Verstappen decided to pit during the safety car, at which point Leclerc began reporting throttle problems. Verstappen started the race on pole after winning Saturday's sprint race qualifier, with Leclerc also at the front of the grid. Mercedes-Benz AMG's Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top three positions, some 41 seconds behind the winner.

Did you know not Charles Leclerc but Sergio Perez won the Austrian Grand Prix? Even Lewis Hamilton was not on the podium. At least, this is what the ...

No doubt, this will go down as one of the funniest moments in F1 history. Sainz, on the other hand, looked confirmed for P2, when engine failure blazed his car on fire. Notably, Carlos Sainz came in 2nd for Red Bull while Max Verstappen has started driving for arch-rivals Mercedes now. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT At least, this is what the authorities conveyed on the screens when they put Perez P1 for Ferrari. While the Austrian GP was already an event filled with surprising action, this particular instance made it even more dumbfounding.

There was plenty of action in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix with good news also for Mercedes, Haas and others.

- Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 Lap - Mick Schumacher Haas +1 Lap One question that may have been answered, at least to some degree, is the future of the Haas driver lineup. Ferrari team principal Mattia Binnoto spoke for the organization when he said, "We can’t be too happy - (perhaps) even disappointed” with the result. Ferrari for its part needs a solution to its frequently failing engines, which Binnoto has repeatedly claimed to be confident in finding despite not being sure of the cause. It would be the first of three times Leclerc passed Verstappen, having twice previously surrendered the lead after pit stops for fresh tires.

The tension was palpable in the closing laps, and the relief was obvious after Charles Leclerc crossed the line on Sunday. "I definitely needed that," said ...

But the people back in Maranello are working very hard trying to fix them." A 56-point deficit in the standings, therefore, is simply not good enough. "It's just something we need to analyse and understand." The main issue for the Dutchman was tyre degradation. He would then face engine penalties in Canada, while odd Ferrari strategy decisions cost a leading Leclerc chances in Monaco, Baku and at Silverstone. Leclerc, so often the prey this season with Red Bull's straight-line speed advantage, was the hunter.

Charles Leclerc finally snapped his run of horrible luck in Austria with a reminder that he can still be a threat to runaway title leader Max Verstappen.

"It is certainly a concern but the people back at Maranello are working very hard on trying to fix that and what happened to Carlos has not been solved yet. "And with that new rear wing I think we have simply reduced the gap we had in terms of speed. "We could see in the sprint race that we had a bit more of an advantage in terms of tyre degradation. "We still have a disadvantage compared to the Red Bull in straight-line speed no doubt, especially with DRS open, so their DRS is more powerful compared to ours," Binotto explained. For Leclerc it will be crucial to secure two more good results at the next two races ahead of F1's summer break. The performance step in Austria was encouraging for Ferrari, but it came against a backdrop of yet another power unit failure. "I don't think there is much of a difference between the cars, and if anything it was higher degradation on the Red Bull that won the race for Charles. "So the only thing that's changed overnight is the rain [on race day morning], the temperature slightly and of course the fuel load, so we just need to understand why in that first stint our deg was significantly worse than Charles and Carlos. Go back through his 2022 record to date and it is littered with cruel luck and missed opportunities -- the sort that is not only devastating in terms of points lost but also mentally draining for a driver. It's also a reminder that titles are not won on car performance alone, but a mix of performance, reliability and strategy execution at races -- the latter two being clear weak points for Ferrari this year. Although he was leading, Verstappen had the upper hand in terms of strategy and Leclerc would have probably finished behind both Red Bulls in third. Add Saturday's sprint race result into the mix and on a weekend when Leclerc had the measure of Verstappen over a grand prix distance, he only took five points out of the reigning champion's already considerable lead.

Charles Leclerc finally snapped his run of horrible luck in Austria with a reminder that he can still be a threat to runaway title leader Max Verstappen.

"It is certainly a concern but the people back at Maranello are working very hard on trying to fix that and what happened to Carlos has not been solved yet. "And with that new rear wing I think we have simply reduced the gap we had in terms of speed. "We could see in the sprint race that we had a bit more of an advantage in terms of tyre degradation. "We still have a disadvantage compared to the Red Bull in straight-line speed no doubt, especially with DRS open, so their DRS is more powerful compared to ours," Binotto explained. For Leclerc it will be crucial to secure two more good results at the next two races ahead of F1's summer break. The performance step in Austria was encouraging for Ferrari, but it came against a backdrop of yet another power unit failure. "I don't think there is much of a difference between the cars, and if anything it was higher degradation on the Red Bull that won the race for Charles. "So the only thing that's changed overnight is the rain [on race day morning], the temperature slightly and of course the fuel load, so we just need to understand why in that first stint our deg was significantly worse than Charles and Carlos. Go back through his 2022 record to date and it is littered with cruel luck and missed opportunities -- the sort that is not only devastating in terms of points lost but also mentally draining for a driver. It's also a reminder that titles are not won on car performance alone, but a mix of performance, reliability and strategy execution at races -- the latter two being clear weak points for Ferrari this year. Although he was leading, Verstappen had the upper hand in terms of strategy and Leclerc would have probably finished behind both Red Bulls in third. Add Saturday's sprint race result into the mix and on a weekend when Leclerc had the measure of Verstappen over a grand prix distance, he only took five points out of the reigning champion's already considerable lead.