Leclerc wins the 2022 Austrian GP but hopes of a 1-2 go up in flames — as it happened

Charles Leclerc won his first grand prix in eight races at the Red Bull Ring, as Ferrari out-raced its title rivals on home turf.

But for the second race in a row, Ferrari was left rueing a missed opportunity after Carlos Sainz’s car was engulfed in flames, costing him what seemed a surefire second place at the Austrian Grand Prix.

After fighting among themselves in Saturday’s sprint race, leaving Verstappen unchallenged at the front, the Ferraris put the pressure on the Red Bull driver from the very start.

Charles Leclerc was rarely more than a second behind the Dutchman before making his move on lap 10 and pulling away from Verstappen. The Red Bull pitted soon afterwards.

Ferrari left it another 12 laps before pitting, giving both of its cars a significant tyre advantage through the middle stage of the race, and they breezed past Verstappen after dropping behind during their first stops.

Verstappen was racing alone after Sergio Perez was pushed off the track on lap 1 by George Russell and later retired as a result of the damage.

When the cars stopped for a second time, the race looked set for a repeat; Verstappen changing tyres well before Leclerc and Sainz who fell behind but again quickly caught him as the grand prix came to a close.

Leclerc took the lead and Sainz looked set to make it a 1-2 until he suddenly slowed and smoke poured out of the back of his car. Flames then emerged from the rear vents and then engulfed the back of the car.

If that wasn’t enough to unsettle Leclerc, a sticky throttle affected him for the final laps, but his car held together and he beat Leclerc to the line.

Lewis Hamilton reached the podium for the third race in a row, finishing ahead of Russell who was penalised for the first-lap crash. There were points for both McLarens and Haas cars, as well as Fernando Alonso, who started at the back of the grid.

2022 Austrian GP — as it happened

Saturday’s sprint race set the grid for the Grand Prix, so Alonso was always going to start at the back after a problem with his Alpine meant that he never got going. It meant that penalties for taking a new power unit had no effect.

Valtteri Bottas started from the pitlane after Alfa Romeo also took a new power unit and fitted an altered rear wing after the sprint race.

Most drivers, including all of the top 12, started on medium tyres. Only Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso chose the hard tyres.

Orange smoke billowed across the circuit as Max Verstappen led the cars round on the formation lap and he was still in front on lap 1 when the lights were out, pulling ahead of second-placed Charles Leclerc.

From fourth on the grid, Russell dived up the inside of Carlos Sainz, who had started third, and Sainz ran wide, behind the Mercedes but with momentum. He outdragged Russell into Turn 3 and reclaimed third. The Mercedes followed the Ferrari to the apex, leaving Perez space to chance his luck around the outside.

It briefly got him alongside Russell in the corner, and he tried to make a move stick in Turn 4, arriving slightly ahead of the Mercedes, but you could see the clash coming a mile off.

There was a car’s width for the Mercedes on the inside but Russell drifted wide, tagged the Red Bull and Perez went sliding into the gravel, rejoining last, with bodywork damage. He headed to the pits for hard tyres.

It was Russell’s fault, declared the stewards, issuing a 5sec penalty to the Mercedes.

Further back, Daniel Ricciardo got past his McLaren team-mate at the start, moving into ninth place. Perez aside, everybody made it on to lap 2 relatively cleanly.

Unlike in the sprint race, Leclerc kept the pressure on Verstappen. After the Red Bull set a fastest lap on lap 3, Leclerc responded with a faster time on lap 4, keeping the gap between the cars just under 1sec as DRS was enabled.

Lewis Hamilton spent much of the sprint race stuck behind the Haas cars and they came back to haunt him at the start; he started behind Magnussen and then lost a place to Schumacher when he dropped a wheel off the track, going down to eighth. ‘Their speed is crazy, said Hamilton of the Ferrari-engined cars

Leclerc was half a second behind Verstappen on lap 7 and had a brief look at Turn 3, but remained in close proximity.

He made his move on lap 10, diving up the inside at Turn 3, but only emerging level with the Red Bull — which had better drive. He went back for another go at the next corner, this time pulling alongside on the outside but locking up and dropping back behind Verstappen.

“I cannot hold this long,” said Verstappen as the pair outpaced the rest of the field, pulling 1.5sec ahead of Sainz and a further 10sec clear of Russell. The Mercedes driver pitted at the end of lap 11, taking his 5sec penalty, fitting hard tyres and changing his front wing after the first lap clash.

Russell came out 17th, behind Nicholas Latifi and a new race leader: Verstappen had left the door wide open at Turn 4 and Leclerc took full advantage in an anticlimactic end to the battle.

Verstappen pitted for a set of hard tyres at the end of lap 13, returning in eighth position, 2,5 sec behind Lando Norris.

Hamilton finally got past Schumacher in the fast Turn 8 on lap 15 and looked to have discovered the secret to passing the Haas cars going past Magnussen the following lap and moving up to fourth.

Perez remained last but, in his haste to catch up the pack, was taking too many liberties with the white lines. After being warned for exceeding the track limits, Perez was given the black and white flag, indicating that a penalty was imminent if he continued to stray outside the limits.

Kevin Magnussen joined a wave of drivers pitting for hard tyres, including Ricciardo, Norris, Albon, Bottas and Gasly, easing Verstappen’s climb back up the running order and ensuring he avoided a midfield DRS train of cars running nose-to-tail.

As a pair the Haas cars had been dogged defenders in Saturday’s sprint race and ahead of Hamilton in the GP. They appeared less potent on their own. Verstappen made short work of Schumacher and closed up to Hamilton, passing him for third place at on the approach to Turn 4 on lap 19, with Sainz 16sec up the road, 4sec behind Leclerc.

A series of fastest laps from lap 20 showed Verstappen’s intent. Strategy talk over the Ferrari radio led Red Bull to believe that they might go for a one-stop.

Ocon, who started in sixth, had stopped early for tyres and dropped into 10th place, but quickly moved back to sixth, leaving a thrilling battle for for the final points places between Zhou, Alonso, Magnussen, Norris and Schumacher.

Magnussen dived down the inside of Alonso and Zhou, going three abreast at Turn 1 on lap 24, then Norris and Zhou joined from behind, the five of dicing as they raced through Turn 3 and then 4.

Zhou dropped out to pit, but the battle went on: Magnussen leading from Norris, Alonso then Schumacher, who would soon clear the Alpine.

Perez made a second stop at the end of lap 25 and retired, being wheeled into the pitlane as Leclerc stopped at the end of lap 26. Verstappen’s pace on his newer tyres put him 7sec ahead of the Ferrari when it came back out, and the Red Bull was only 9.5sec behind Sainz who stopped on lap 27.

Once he came out of the pits, the order on lap 28 was Verstappen leading a charging Leclerc, followed by Hamilton who hadn’t stopped, ahead of Sainz and Stroll, the only other non-stopper.

Hamilton did stop on lap 29 and a 4sec pitstop, caused by a slow front-right tyre change brought him out alongside fifth-placed Ocon.

He was unimpressed at falling behind the Alpine but Stroll then pitted from fourth and Hamilton cleared Ocon on lap 30, going up the inside of Turn 3 and into fourth.

Russell was also making progress, passing Ricciardo and moving up to ninth.

The lead changed again on lap 33, after Leclerc, on his much fresher tyres sailed past Verstappen on the run to Turn 3, the defending champion complaining of unpredictable grip.

Schumacher had argued that he was faster than team-mate Magnussen in the sprint race but was forced to stay behind. He held station behind the Dane in the Grand Prix as well until lap 33 when he went past, in search of fifth-placed Ocon, 3sec up the road.

Lando Norris was shown a black and white flag for exceeding track limits and then promptly went over the white line again, incurring a 5sec penalty.

Tsunoda also got an admonishment from the cockpit of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine, which had pulled alongside the AlphaTauri, which then squeezed him on to the grass. The two-time champion got ahead anyway, wagging his finger as he sped away.

Sainz was on the rear wing of Verstappen on lap 37, but there was no chance for a duel, as the Red Bull peeled into the pits to fit another set of hard tyres, coming out 20sec behind the second-placed Ferrari. Initially he was told to match the times of Hamilton, 6sec behind in fourth to conserve tyres, but was then given the all-clear to push, in what appeared to be the final battle for the lead, with the Ferraris suspected to be on a one-stop.

On lap 40, Sebastian Vettel tried to pass Gasly on the outside of Turn 4, as Perez had done on the opening lap. The result was the same too: Gasly moved out wide, Vettel was sent spinning into the gravel and Gasly was then hit with a 5sec penalty.

Russell pitted at the end of lap 41, dropping back into 12th. Norris moved up to seventh on lap 42, diving up the inside of Magnussen, who had dropped 3.5sec behind his team-mate.

Behind him, on lap 43, George Russell took 11th place from Zhou Guanyu. He moved into the points on lap 45 by going past Schumacher, then won a battle with Stroll later that lap to advance to ninth.

Verstappen got the gap to Sainz below 15sec on the same lap, catching the Ferraris at a rate that would see him fighting them before the finish.

Russell had left Schumacher and Stroll fighting behind him and the pair duelled for almost three full laps. Schumacher got cleanly through on lap 48 and the unfortunate Stroll lost out to Magnussen at the same time.

Lap 49 made a mockery of previous assumptions, as Leclerc made a second stop for hard tyres and dropped back to third. Sainz followed him in on lap 50 and Verstappen drove into the lead, but just 2.5sec in front of Leclerc and his 12-lap fresher tyres. Sainz was a further 5sec behind.

Lewis Hamilton came in from fourth on lap 51 to fit medium tyres and returned 30ec behind Sainz, as Leclerc cruised up to Verstappen and simply powered past: initially trying to go around the outside and then cutting back on the inside as Verstappen tried to get the power down, and accelerating into the lead,

“What a joke that traction is,” radioed Verstappen.

George Russell moved up to sixth on lap 54, passing Alonso to run 14.5sec behind fifth-placed Ocon. Both Haas cars remained in the points, with Lando Norris rounding up the top 10.

Sainz looked set to take second place on lap 57, setting fastest lap after fastest lap to close up behind Verstappen. But, in an all-too-familiar scene for Ferrari this year, hopes of a 1-2 finish went up in flames as a thin trail of smoke emerged from the back of the Ferrari, followed by fire licking the vents on the engine cover, and then engulfing the rear of the car.

A virtual safety car was imposed to neutralise the race while the Ferrari was recovered, and both leading drivers took the chance to swap to medium tyres.

Racing resumed on lap 60, with Verstappen 3.5sec behind a nervy Leclerc. “Throttle pedal feels a bit strange,” he said.

“What’s happening, what’s happening with he throttle?” Leclerc demanded soon afterwards.

Norris moved up to seventh, going past Magnussen on lap 63. With Sainz’s retirement and other cars pitting, Ricciardo was now ninth, with Albon behind. But Williams’ hopes of a points finish were dashed on lap 65, as Bottas went past for tenth place.

Ferrari told Leclerc that his throttle was sticking and that he needed to lift off earlier, as Verstappen slowly closed the gap to 3sec by lap 69.

But there would be no late drama for Leclerc, who crossed the line to win.

2022 Austrian Grand Prix results

*Includes additional point for fastest lap