Tonight Beijing time was the start of the F1 Austrian Grand Prix. In the end, Leclerc withstood the super shock of Verstappen and won the championship of this station. Verstappen, playing at home, finished second, Hamilton held the podium and finished third, and Zhou Guanyu finished 14th.
During the match, Sainz, Perez and Latifi withdrew as several people received black and white flag cautions and were penalized.
In the starting phase, Verstappen, who won the championship in yesterday’s sprint race, easily took the lead. Russell and Sainz began to chase each other and overtook each other.
On the first lap Perez collided with Russell, then crashed into the buffer zone and fell to the rear of the team.
On the fourth lap of the match, Verstappen continued to lead, and Leclerc behind him was about 1 second back.
On the 12th lap, Leclerc continued to attack Verstappen fiercely and eventually passed him on the inside to take the lead. Zhou Guanyu finished in 13th place.
On the 14th lap, Verstappen took the lead when he changed to hard tires and came out of the pits in eighth place.
On the 18th lap, Zhou Guanyu finished seventh, but at that point neither he nor Kakuda Yuyi and Alonso had left the pits.
On the 24th lap, the drivers in the middle group (with and without pit stops) formed a melee with five cars! Aokang continuously overtook Alonso, Zhou Guanyu and Kakuda Yuyi, who had not yet pitted, to finish sixth. Zhou Guanyu dropped back to 11th place.
On the 26th lap, Perez, who had collided with Russell in the starting phase, retired from the race, and Russell had previously accepted a 5-second penalty.
On the 33rd lap, Leclerc took advantage of the tires to attack Verstappen again and successfully overtook him.
On laps 35to 37, Gasly, Norris, Sainz and Zhou Guanyu received black and white flag cautions for crossing the track boundaries several times and were given a 5-second penalty.
On the 40th lap, Vettel and Gasly collided in turn 4, resulting in a brief yellow flag, after which Gasly again received a 5-second penalty.
On the 43rd lap, Leclerc’s pace gradually decreased, Sainz was able to reduce the gap to 4 seconds, and Zhou Guanyu also improved to 12th place.
On the 49th lap, Verstappen continued to chase Sainz, and the gap had shrunk to about 12 seconds. Zhou Guanyu was 18th after leaving the station. Then Leclerc completed the second stop and was only 3.6 seconds behind Verstappen after leaving the pits while holding the tire advantage.
On lap 51, Latifi retired and Gasly received his third penalty.
On lap 53, Leclerc overtook Verstappen again, for the third time in today’s race! Zhou Guanyu improved one place to 17th.
On lap 58, Sainz’s engine, which had been chasing Verstappen all the way to the DRS zone, caught fire, triggering a virtual safety car! At this point, Zhou Guanyu was in 15th place. Then both Leclerc and Verstappen decided to make a pit stop.
The race resumed on the 60th lap with Leclerc leading by about 4 seconds over Verstappen, but at this point there was no difference in tire conditions between the two.
On the 65th lap Bottas, who had been sitting still for most of the race, overtook Albon to move into 10th place.
On the 68th lap, Leclerc was still about 3 seconds ahead of Verstappen, but he continued to lose speed, and Verstappen chased after him. Zhou Guanyu then passed Gasly for 14th place.
On the last lap, Verstappen gradually reduced the gap to about 2 seconds, and the gap between the two became smaller and smaller. In the end, Leclerc still had his nose in front and won the championship!
TOP10
Leclerc
Verstappen
Hamilton
Russell
O’Connell
Mick Schumacher
Norris
Magnussen
Ricardo
Alonso