Sprint: Max Verstappen heads Sergio Perez in frantic wet-dry Austrian Grand Prix dash

Max Verstappen beat Sergio Perez to victory in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint, but not without a tetchy moment between the Red Bull pair at the start.

Perez had taken the lead away from his team-mate before Verstappen felt he was forced off-track, and made his way by again before racing into a 21-second lead come the chequered flag.

Carlos Sainz finished third for Ferrari, with Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso battling to the line as they rounded out the top five in a sprint of split strategies in mixed conditions at the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

With rain coming down in the hour leading up to the sprint, the track became wet enough for the drivers to start on intermediate tyres. Valtteri Bottas was brave enough to try slick tyres for the formation lap, but quickly dived into the pit lane for inters when he realised it was too wet.

And a frantic first lap ensued.

Perez got the much better start of the Red Bulls and overtook Verstappen into Turn 1, with the pair going side-by-side up the hill and Verstappen going onto the grass, before regrouping and launching a move up the inside at Turn 3 from a long way back to retake the lead.

He ran deep and forced Perez to take evasive action and run wide, which in turn helped Nico Hulkenberg get a good run behind the pair down to Turn 4, and he was able to slip up the inside of Perez and take second place in the process.

Lando Norris, meanwhile, fell right back to 10th after starting third, coming almost to a complete stop at the apex of Turn 3 as the Red Bull drivers duelled.

Further back, Lewis Hamilton started in 18th after his best lap time was deleted in SQ1, but the Mercedes driver was up to 13th by the end of the first lap.

Another of the big gainers was Alex Albon, who jumped up from 11th to 7th and was holding his own behind the Aston Martin duo, with Esteban Ocon and Charles Leclerc in pursuit.

Finger-pointing took place via team radio from the Red Bull drivers, with Verstappen claiming “he pushed me off” and Perez saying: “What’s wrong with Max, man?”

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While the field began to string out a bit as the drivers settled into a rhythm, the Mercedes pair were the ones looking to make up ground after an under par sprint shootout for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Both Hamilton and George Russell pulled off daring moves on Kevin Magnussen on different parts of the track, but with P11 and P12 the rewards and only the top eight places scoring points, work still needed to be done.

Hulkenberg held on valiantly to second place until halfway through the 24-lap sprint, with Perez gradually reeling in the Haas driver until making a bold move around the outside of the downhill left-hander of Turn 6 that put the Red Bull driver back into second place.

A first top three finish in Formula 1 in any form for Hulkenberg had still been on the cards, but Carlos Sainz was bearing down on him shortly afterwards and made a move down the inside at Turn 4 to pass the Haas driver.

The search for wet patches on track grew stronger among the drivers as the track began to dry.

A ding-dong battle between Leclerc and Ocon saw the pair almost make contact on a couple of occasions as they jostled for position, but Norris was on hand to pounce and move ahead of Leclerc as he lost time fighting the Alpine in ninth.

Russell was the first driver to take the plunge and pit for slick tyres on lap 16 as DRS was enabled and the track dried, with only a few laps to see if the gamble would pay off.

He duly set the fastest first sector of anyone on his first flying lap and this prompted a flurry of stops elsewhere, particularly from those outside the points, with the hope being that conditions would come towards them even further.

A whole heap of action ensued in the midfield as dry tyre runners fought over position and, despite Lance Stroll calling on his team to try and urge Fernando Alonso to not fight him, that did not stop the two-time World Champion from launching an all-out attack to try and take fourth place from his team-mate.

The Canadian did well to resist the attacks all the way to the chequered flag at the end, with Verstappen having cruised to victory from his team-mate and Sainz in third.

He will start on pole again for the full Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, which will take place over 71 laps.

Sprint classification: 2023 Austrian Grand Prix

1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull24 laps
2 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull +21.048
3 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari +23.088
4 Lance STROLL Aston Martin +29.703
5 Fernando ALONSO Aston Martin +30.109
6 Nico HULKENBERG Haas +31.297
7 Esteban OCON Alpine +36.602
8 George RUSSELL Mercedes +36.611
9 Lando NORRIS McLaren +38.608
10 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes +46.375
11 Oscar PIASTRI McLaren +49.807
12 Charles LECLERC Ferrari +50.789
13 Alexander ALBON Williams +52.848
14 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas +56.593
15皮埃尔气体Alpine +57.652
16 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri +64.822
17 Nyck DE VRIES AlphaTauri +65.617
18 Logan SARGEANT Williams +66.059
19 ZHOU Guanyu Alfa Romeo +70.825
20 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo +76.435

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