The heat in Spielberg set the stage for an intense Sprint Race ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, and with an aborted start after the formation lap reduced the race to 23 laps.
As the race began, Verstappen claimed the lead in turn one, leaving the McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to battle for second place.
Speaking after the race, Verstappen reflected on the challenging start and battles he had in the first few laps of the race with Norris and Piastri. He noted that when the McLarens were in DRS range they were a challenge to fend off.
Norris made a pass on lap 5 for the lead at turn 3, but the World Champion returned serve down at turn 4 with a late lunge down the inside. From there, he resisted Piastri initially before pulling away.
“Yeah, it was a good first lap I would say, but then yeah once the DRS opens it’s very hard to get out of it.
“We had to work for it in that race, so yeah a few things to think about what we can do better for tomorrow especially.”
As the race progressed, the McLaren’s continued their battle, with no team orders dictating their moves. Meanwhile, George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, and Sergio Perez completed the top eight point-scoring places, with Verstappen maintaining a comfortable lead at the front.
Speaking about the car this weekend, he is pleased with the work they have done so far.
“I think I feel good with the car. I think I’m working well with the team to really extract everything out of the car.
“It’s very tight and it’s really little details that can define a weekend nowadays between teams, which of course is very exciting.
“I mean, of course, naturally I would like to win by 20 seconds, 30 seconds, because naturally you still do the best you can.”
Despite his Sprint race victory, he remains cautious about the weekend ahead.
“Is that then a guaranteed win for tomorrow? Absolutely not, because it’s still going to be very close,” he said, acknowledging the speed of the McLaren’s behind him.
“We tried to, of course, work on it, tried to be better at it. But I think we had a good preparation going into the weekend,” he noted, pointing to the team’s efforts to improve the RB20’s set-up.
“Luckily then, of course, it paid off as soon as the car hit the ground.”
Verstappen has noted that the car’s balance has been good from the beginning of the race weekend, and spoke about the changes the team have made to the car following the last few GP’s, where the team has struggled a lot on Fridays.
“It was in a sensible window and it was just tiny adjustments to make it better. But it’s positive… of course, you try to learn from difficult weekends and how to be better prepared for the next one.”
