Posted in: 07/07/2022 – 11:46Last updated: 07/07/2022 – 11:44
Spielberg (Austria) (AFP) – The Austrian Grand Prix offers the perfect antidote to Dutch champion Max Verstappen’s disappointment last stage at Britain’s Silverstone, when he competes in the eleventh stage of the Formula One World Championship at his Red Bull team’s home.
“Mad Max” wrote his name in the winners’ record on the circuit owned by the Austrian pit (Red Bull Ring), following he crushed the competition last year by winning the Austrian and Styria Grand Prix respectively, which were held on the same circuit.
After these two victories, Verstappen raised his tally to four victories out of 7 on the shortest first class circuit and 26 victories in his record, and this year he has the opportunity to climb twice to the highest threshold on the podium following the decision to host Red Bull Circuit for one of the three sprint races scheduled this year. .
The 100-kilometre sprint gives the winner a chance to score 8 points, while Verstappen once more appears the favorite to win first place on Sunday, returning from Austria with a full harvest (34 points).
At the age of 24, Verstappen hopes to retain his title for a second year, especially as he has a plan “I may stop in 2028”, he told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
The Dutch driver loves sprints, as he won the first race of this kind held at the Italian circuit of Imola, and 24 hours later added to his record the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix and the fastest lap point in the race.
A repeat of the feat would only be a catalyst following a grueling time for the Red Bull driver in the epic British Grand Prix when debris from his Alpha Tauri came to a halt following Japanese teammates Yuki Tsunoda and France’s Pierre Gasly clashed as he sought his seventh win of the season out of 10 races. Just finished seventh.
Verstappen, at the beginning of the era of the new generation of Formula One cars, topped the drivers’ standings with 181 points, 34 points ahead of his Mexican colleague Sergio “Chico” Perez, who won in the streets of the Principality of Monaco, and 43 ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc of Monaco, who seemed angry because of frustration with the strategies of His team, which favored his Spanish colleague Carlos Sainz, to open the latter in Silverstone, his tally of victories in the first category.
The last victory of Leclerc, who finished fourth in the last round, is due to Australia, that is, 3 months ago.
Pires tried to snatch the lead from Science, while homeowner Lewis Hamilton, the seven-times world champion, waited for his rivals to snatch his ninth victory at Silverstone and his first this season, but without succeeding in achieving this, he was content with a car that he made extensive modifications that allowed him to fight Red Bull and Ferrari quickly finished third, and failed to end their negative streak by not winning 11 races in a row.
Mercedes to beat the adults?
Silverstone fans booed Verstappen and clearly expressed their displeasure with the Red Bull driver who deprived “The Walk” of his record eighth title last year, prompting Britain’s Christian Horner to say clearly ahead of this weekend’s race: “Maybe we will have a warmer reception than there”.
Spielberg is not a Mercedes track, and Austrian director Toto Wolff confirmed this, saying, “It’s a completely different track from Silverstone, and it has not always been suitable for us in the past.”
Other than the fast cornering at Silverstone, the Austrian circuit with its “slow” turns is not the dreamland of Mercedes, who has won only two times in six races since 2018.
Although the Austrian mountains are half-summer and the snow is melting, it will be orange as thousands of Dutch fans are likely to flock this weekend.
Verstappen called on his fans not to respond to the provocations of the Hamilton fans, telling De Telegraaf: “They don’t have to do that for me. It’s not like it gives me extra strength or anything like that.”
On the other hand, Mercedes had tangible evidence at Silverstone that its attempts to rid the volatile “Silver Arrows” of its rebound flaws were paying off.
But the question arises: will Hamilton get a chance to beat the big guys? After the beginning of a year dominated by Red Bull (7 wins) and Ferrari (3), the German fold hopes to transform the reality of climbing to the podiums (3 each for Hamilton and his teammate George Russell) into victories.
“See you in Austria!”
“We’ll keep our heads low, prepare as best we can, and hopefully we can build on Silverstone’s momentum,” said Wolff.
Wolff confirmed that Hamilton, who has found himself for the first time this season at the top of a race and is vying for first place, had a “brilliant” race last Sunday and that the team was “proud of the character” shown by fellow newcomer Russell.
The world of Formula One paid tribute to Russell’s sporting action when he decided to park his car in the track and head to the scene of the accident that suffered by the Chinese Djiguo Guanyu, the horrific accident survivor, following his Alfa Romeo car flipped and crossed the tire barrier to the final barrier separating the track from the crowd.
Guanyu praised the safety factors of the single-seater and the halo protection system for saving his life, tweeting following the accident, “Now I am more eager than ever to get back on the right track. See you in Austria!”
With the adoption of the sprint race, the traditional racing system changes, with the first period of free practice and qualifying for the sprint race taking place on Friday, followed by the second period of free practice that determines the starting grid for Sunday’s race.
© 2022 AFP
