Max Verstappen was upstaged at the Austrian Grand Prix as Ferrari proved they had the much faster car on the day.
Charles Leclerc was the man who overtook the Red Bull star several times in between pit stops, underlining his superior pace. It might have been worse for Verstappen as Sainz looked likely to overtake in the later stages, but the Spaniard suffered an engine blowout and a scary moment as his Ferrari was quickly engulfed in flames.
His misfortune was music to the ears of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, as the Brit produced a superb drive to make his way from eighth on the grid to secure a third podium in a row. George Russell managed to finish behind him in fourth recovering from damage and a penalty after contact which forced Sergio Perez to retire.
After all his hard work during Saturday's Sprint to work his way up to fifth, Perez's race was ruined when he made contact with Russell on the first lap. He managed to avoid beaching his Red Bull in the gravel, but fell a long way behind and pitted for hard tyres in the hope of making the gap up later in the race.
Russell picked up front wing damage and a five-second penalty, and came into the pits to deal with both. But things were worse for Perez, who spent the next two dozen laps limping around at the back before Red Bull eventually decided it would be best to simply retire the car.
Meanwhile, Hamilton – who spent much of the Sprint stuck behind the two Haas cars – found himself there again when Mick Schumacher moved past after a mistake from the Mercedes man. "Their straight line speed is crazy," said the Brit, but this time he was not behind for long as he produced a daring overtake at turn eight a few laps later.
At the front, Leclerc was able to move past Verstappen who clearly was not as comfortable as he had been in the Sprint the day before. In the cooler conditions, the Ferraris looked a lot stronger and threatened to spoil the party at the Red Bull Ring.
With Sainz threatening to overtake as well, Red Bull decided to pit the Dutchman to give him the advantage of fresher tyres – possibly motivated by his complaints over team radio. At first it appeared to pay off, as Verstappen closed the gap significantly to the two Ferraris and causing Leclerc to pit again with 20 laps to go.
And it wasn't long after that the Ferrari man was on the tail of Verstappen again, with the red cars clearly much faster on the day. Leclerc moved past with relative ease once again – sparking another radio grumble – and sped off into the distance.
Sainz might have done the same as he closed in on the Red Bull man, but he suffered the heartbreak of another engine blowout. He pulled over and had to swiftly get out of his car as flames engulfed the Ferrari.
Leclerc's victory was under threat towards the end of the race, as he struggled with a mechanical problem which was affecting his downshifts. But he managed to nurse the Ferrari home to take the chequered flag and close the gap to Verstappen in the title race.
Full 2022 Austrian Grand Prix results
- Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
- Max Verstappen – Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
- George Russell – Mercedes
- Esteban Ocon – Alpine
- Mick Schumacher – Haas
- Lando Norris – McLaren
- Kevin Magnussen – Haas
- Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren
- Fernando Alonso – Alpine
- Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo
- Alexander Albon – Williams
- Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
- Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo
- Pierre Gasly – AlphaTauri
- Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri
- Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin
DNF: Sergio Perez, Nicholas Latifi, Carlos Sainz
