The Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the Formula 1 (F1) World Championship, will start first this Saturday in the sprint test that will decide the qualification for the Austrian Grand Prix, the eleventh of the championship, which is held at the Red Bull Spielberg Ring; where the Spaniards Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine) will do so from third and ninth place, respectively; and the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), from the fourth.
Verstappen, 24, covered the 4,318 meters of the Austrian track in one minute, four seconds and 984 thousandths, 29 less than the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and with 82 more than his partner, the Spanish Carlos Sainz, who comes of winning last Sunday at Silverstone (England) and will start third in the reduced test, scheduled to be just over a third of the way on Sunday; that is to say: 24 laps and 103.5 kilometers.
‘Checo’ was 420 thousandths behind his partner and will start fourth this Saturday; while Alonso, like all the previous ones, with a soft tire, who invested one second and 119 thousandths more than ‘Mad Max’ will do so from ninth place.
This is the second Grand Prix of the three of the year -following Emilia Romagna and before Brazil- whose starting line-up will be decided through a sprint race; but for the statistics the first place of this Friday’s qualifying counts, so
got his seventeenth ‘pole’ since he runs in F1, the third of the season. And now he will look for his seventh victory in 2022.
This is how the classification of the Austrian Grand Prix for the sprint race was:
- Max Verstappen
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Sergio Perez
- George Russell
- Stephen Ocon
- Kevin Magnussen
- Mick Schumacher
- Fernando Alonso
- Lewis Hamilton
- Pierry Gasly
- Alexander Albon
- Valtteri Bottas
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Lando Norris
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Lance Stroll
- Guanyu Zhou
- Nicholas Latifi
- Sebastian Vettel