F1 Austrian Grand Prix: ‘We had some good fights with Verstappen’ – Leclerc

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won the F1 Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday – his third win for the season – followed closely by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton placed third.

F1 Austrian Grand Prix 2022

‘Very difficult race’

Leclerc said, “it was a really good race, the pace was there at the beginning and we had some good fights with Max”.

That said, the “end was very difficult” for Leclerc, especially when his throttle pedal started acting up and was sticking to 20% when he lifted fully off the pedal.

Leclerc confirmed during the 64th lap that everything was (sort of) under control. Verstappen tried to close the gap but just couldn’t keep up.

Leclerc said: “I definitely needed that one, the last five races have been incredibly difficult for not just myself but for the team”.

Verstappen placed second

After 71 gruelling laps, Leclerc crossed the finish first, throttle problems and all, followed by Verstappen 1.5 seconds behind.

Red Bull’s Verstappen was surprisingly upbeat despite the defeat, saying “second isn’t too bad”, even though he couldn’t give the orange army a win.

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“It was a tricky day”, Verstappen said, especially since the team “struggled quite a bit with the tyres, and that happened on every compound”.

“Too much degradation on the tyres, but second place is still a good result for us on a tricky day,” he concluded.

Hamilton grateful, ready to ‘move on’

Lewis Hamilton – who took third for Mercedes – said it was a rough weekend but he was really grateful that the team took third and fourth.

“So, we move on from here. I do want to say a thank you to the men and women in the garage who worked so hard to rebuild the car. 

“I had a brand new car on Saturday morning, I made a mistake on Friday, not something I do often,” Hamilton said after the race.

F1 Austrian Grand Prix Top 10

Russell took fourth place, followed by Ocon in fifth.

F1 Top Ten:

• Leclerc
• Verstappen
• Hamilton
• Russell
• Ocon
• Schumacher
• Norris
• Magnussen
• Ricciardo
• Alonso