F1 results: Max Verstappen wins Austrian GP sprint

The Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Sergio Perez swapped the lead on the opening lap with some robust driving between the team-mates, each blaming the other.

But Verstappen got clear as Perez got trapped behind Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas for a dozen laps, and motored away to another dominant victory, with all the action happening behind as the track dried and some switched to slicks.

2023 F1 Austrian sprint results

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Points
1	Max Verstappen		24	30'26.730			8
2	Sergio Perez		24	30'47.778	21.048	21.048	7
3	Carlos Sainz		24	30'49.818	23.088	2.040	6
4	Lance Stroll		24	30'56.433	29.703	6.615	5
5	Fernando Alonso		24	30'56.839	30.109	0.406	4
6	Nico Hulkenberg		24	30'58.027	31.297	1.188	3
7	Esteban Ocon		24	31'03.332	36.602	5.305	2
8	George Russell		24	31'03.341	36.611	0.009	1
9	Lando Norris		24	31'05.338	38.608	1.997
10	Lewis Hamilton		24	31'13.105	46.375	7.767
11	Oscar Piastri		24	31'16.537	49.807	3.432
12	Charles Leclerc		24	31'17.519	50.789	0.982
13	Alex Albon		24	31'19.578	52.848	2.059
14	Kevin Magnussen		24	31'23.323	56.593	3.745
15	Pierre Gasly		24	31'24.382	57.652	1.059
16	Yuki Tsunoda		24	31'31.552	1'04.822	7.170
17	Nyck de Vries		24	31'32.347	1'05.617	0.795
18	Logan Sargeant		24	31'32.789	1'06.059	0.442
19	Zhou Guanyu		24	31'37.555	1'10.825	4.766
20	Valtteri Bottas		24	31'43.165	1'16.435	5.610
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How the 2023 F1 Austrian sprint unfolded

On a damp track, Perez took the lead at Turn 1 and then edged Verstappen onto the grass on the exit of the first corner. The Red Bulls then almost banged wheels at Turn 3 and Turn 5, allowing Hulkenberg up to second – behind Verstappen but in front of Perez.

Perez took until lap 12 to pass Hulkenberg for second but was already 10s behind Verstappen. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz passed Hulkenberg a lap later for third.

DRS was enabled on lap 17, which allowed the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso to pass Hulkenberg too – which led to Hulkenberg pitting for slicks, along with Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who’d both started from near the tail of the field.

Verstappen beat Perez by 21s, ahead of Sainz, the battling Stroll and Alonso, a fast-closing Hulkenberg (first home on slicks), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Russell (who crossed the line side by side), Lando Norris (McLaren) and Hamilton.

2023 F1 Austrian sprint fastest laps

Cla	Driver		Lap	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Nico Hulkenberg		24	1'10.180			221.499
2	Oscar Piastri		24	1'10.274	0.094	0.094	221.202
3	George Russell		23	1'10.385	0.205	0.111	220.853
4	Kevin Magnussen		23	1'10.539	0.359	0.154	220.371
5	Charles Leclerc		24	1'10.686	0.506	0.147	219.913
6	Lewis Hamilton		24	1'10.775	0.595	0.089	219.636
7	Zhou Guanyu		22	1'11.305	1.125	0.530	218.004
8	Yuki Tsunoda		23	1'11.363	1.183	0.058	217.827
9	Alex Albon		24	1'11.635	1.455	0.272	217.000
10	Nyck de Vries		22	1'11.701	1.521	0.066	216.800
11	Logan Sargeant		21	1'11.829	1.649	0.128	216.413
12	Max Verstappen		19	1'14.292	4.112	2.463	209.239
13	Fernando Alonso		18	1'14.978	4.798	0.686	207.324
14	Carlos Sainz		16	1'15.457	5.277	0.479	206.008
15	Sergio Perez		16	1'15.492	5.312	0.035	205.913
16	Esteban Ocon		22	1'15.512	5.332	0.020	205.858
17	Lance Stroll		23	1'15.531	5.351	0.019	205.806
18	Lando Norris		19	1'15.627	5.447	0.096	205.545
19	Pierre Gasly		22	1'16.109	5.929	0.482	204.243
20	Valtteri Bottas		22	1'16.758	6.578	0.649	202.517
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What happened in sprint shootout qualifying?

This was the second weekend run to the latest sprint race weekend format, featuring the sprint shootout qualifying sessions.

Austrian Grand Prix sprint shootout results: Verstappen on pole from Perez

Cla	Driver		Time	Gap	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		1'04.440		241.229
2	Sergio Perez		1'04.933	0.493	239.397
3	Lando Norris		1'05.010	0.570	239.113
4	Nico Hulkenberg		1'05.084	0.644	238.842
5	Carlos Sainz		1'05.136	0.696	238.651
6	Fernando Alonso		1'05.258	0.818	238.205
7	Lance Stroll		1'05.347	0.907	237.880
8	Esteban Ocon		1'05.366	0.926	237.811
9	Charles Leclerc		1'05.245	0.805	238.252
10	Kevin Magnussen		1'05.912	1.472	235.841
11	Alex Albon		1'06.152	1.712	234.986
12	Pierre Gasly		1'06.360	1.920	234.249
13	Yuki Tsunoda		1'06.369	1.929	234.217
14	Nyck de Vries		1'06.593	2.153	233.429
15	George Russell
16	Zhou Guanyu		1'07.062	2.622	231.797
17	Oscar Piastri		1'07.106	2.666	231.645
18	Lewis Hamilton		1'07.282	2.842	231.039
19	Valtteri Bottas		1'07.291	2.851	231.008
20	Logan Sargeant		1'07.426	2.986	230.546
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What happened in Austrian Grand Prix SQ1?

On a damp but drying track, times tumbled towards the end. Ferrari endured a wild session, with Sainz suffering a braking issue that cost him valuable track time but shooting to the top of the times with his first flying lap of 1m06.187s.

Meanwhile, Leclerc only just scraped through by 0.001s. But Mercedes suffered even worse, with Hamilton not making it through, after having a laptime deleted and then getting mixed-up with Verstappen, and Russell reporting a hydraulic failure.

Falling at the first hurdle were Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas (Alfa) and Logan Sargeant (Williams).

Austrian Grand Prix SQ1 results: Sainz fastest from Verstappen

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Carlos Sainz		5	1'06.187			234.861
2	Max Verstappen		9	1'06.236	0.049	0.049	234.688
3	Nico Hulkenberg		9	1'06.548	0.361	0.312	233.587
4	Lance Stroll		10	1'06.569	0.382	0.021	233.514
5	Fernando Alonso		10	1'06.611	0.424	0.042	233.366
6	Kevin Magnussen		9	1'06.629	0.442	0.018	233.303
7	George Russell		10	1'06.653	0.466	0.024	233.219
8	Nyck de Vries		10	1'06.704	0.517	0.051	233.041
9	Lando Norris		9	1'06.723	0.536	0.019	232.975
10	Esteban Ocon		10	1'06.840	0.653	0.117	232.567
11	Pierre Gasly		10	1'06.873	0.686	0.033	232.452
12	Alex Albon		10	1'06.892	0.705	0.019	232.386
13	Yuki Tsunoda		10	1'06.896	0.709	0.004	232.372
14	Sergio Perez		9	1'06.924	0.737	0.028	232.275
15	Charles Leclerc		10	1'07.061	0.874	0.137	231.800
16	Zhou Guanyu		9	1'07.062	0.875	0.001	231.797
17	Oscar Piastri		10	1'07.106	0.919	0.044	231.645
18	Lewis Hamilton		9	1'07.282	1.095	0.176	231.039
19	Valtteri Bottas		9	1'07.291	1.104	0.009	231.008
20	Logan Sargeant		10	1'07.426	1.239	0.135	230.546
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What happened in Austrian Grand Prix SQ2?

Verstappen set the quickest time on his final lap of the session, a 1m05.371s that was 0.063s ahead of Sainz.

Knocked out at this point were Alex Albon (Williams), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) and Russell (who was stranded in the pits).

Austrian Grand Prix SQ2 results: Verstappen fastest from Sainz

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		17	1'05.371			237.793
2	Carlos Sainz		12	1'05.434	0.063	0.063	237.564
3	Esteban Ocon		18	1'05.604	0.233	0.170	236.948
4	Charles Leclerc		18	1'05.673	0.302	0.069	236.700
5	Lando Norris		17	1'05.699	0.328	0.026	236.606
6	Kevin Magnussen		17	1'05.730	0.359	0.031	236.494
7	Fernando Alonso		18	1'05.759	0.388	0.029	236.390
8	Sergio Perez		17	1'05.836	0.465	0.077	236.113
9	Lance Stroll		18	1'05.914	0.543	0.078	235.834
10	Nico Hulkenberg		17	1'06.091	0.720	0.177	235.202
11	Alex Albon		18	1'06.152	0.781	0.061	234.986
12	Pierre Gasly		16	1'06.360	0.989	0.208	234.249
13	Yuki Tsunoda		18	1'06.369	0.998	0.009	234.217
14	Nyck de Vries		18	1'06.593	1.222	0.224	233.429
15	George Russell		10
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What happened in Austrian Grand Prix SQ3?

Verstappen had the luxury of two new sets of soft tyres and he rocketed to pole, first with a 1m04.613s and then a 1m04.440s. Team-mate Perez was almost half a second slower.

Norris was best of the rest, only 0.077s shy of Perez, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Sainz (who ran out of new softs), Leclerc, the Aston Martins of Alonso and Stroll (who split their tyre strategy and got almost the same outcome), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas).

Austrian Grand Prix SQ3 results: Verstappen takes sprint pole

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Max Verstappen		23	1'04.440			241.229
2	Sergio Perez		23	1'04.933	0.493	0.493	239.397
3	Lando Norris		23	1'05.010	0.570	0.077	239.113
4	Nico Hulkenberg		23	1'05.084	0.644	0.074	238.842
5	Carlos Sainz		18	1'05.136	0.696	0.052	238.651
6	Charles Leclerc		23	1'05.245	0.805	0.109	238.252
7	Fernando Alonso		24	1'05.258	0.818	0.013	238.205
8	Lance Stroll		24	1'05.347	0.907	0.089	237.880
9	Esteban Ocon		24	1'05.366	0.926	0.019	237.811
10	Kevin Magnussen		23	1'05.912	1.472	0.546	235.841
View full results