Verstappen’s father Jos predicted in front of the Viaplay camera shortly before the start that it would not be a simple victory for his son, even though Verstappen was the fastest in the sprint race the day before and he had already won four times in Austria.
He was soon proved right. Verstappen was still able to outrun the Ferraris after the start, but then it became clear that he simply lacked speed due to rapidly wearing tires.
Leclerc overtook Verstappen for the first time in the twelfth lap. Immediately afterwards, Verstappen made a pit stop, which put him on a different tire strategy than Leclerc. From that moment on, Ferrari had the initiative.
Leclerc made his first stop considerably later than Verstappen and came back onto the track behind the Dutchman on fresher, faster tires. Within seven laps he had already overtaken Verstappen. Twenty laps later, that scenario repeated itself, with Leclerc overtaking Verstappen a total of three times in front of the 50,000 Verstappen fans packed stands at the Red Bull Ring.
Exploding Ferrari engine
At that moment, Verstappen seemed to have to reconcile with third place. Behind him he saw Carlos Sainz’s other Ferrari approaching quickly. But just as the Spaniard was about to overtake Verstappen, the Ferrari engine exploded. Flames shot out of the back of his car.
Sainz stopped his car along the track, after which the race was neutralized by a virtual safety car† Verstappen and Leclerc took advantage of that moment by switching to faster, new tires. In the last, remaining ten laps, Verstappen was unable to make it difficult for Leclerc alone, even though the Monegask had problems with his accelerator pedal.
‘Just too much wear and tear’
Verstappen spoke resignedly to former driver David Coulthard during the interview immediately after the race. “We struggled with all tire types. I just had too much wear and tear to attack Charles. Second is a good result on a difficult day.’
Due to his victory, Leclerc reports somewhat in the title fight again. He takes second place in the World Cup standings from Verstappen’s teammate Pérez and narrows the gap towards World Cup leader Verstappen to 38 points.