Austria – Race 1: Charles Leclerc continues his domination at the Red Bull Ring
New demonstration by Charles Leclerc during the first F2 race in Austria. Nicolas Latifi denied Prema a one-two finish by overtaking Antonio Fuoco with two laps to go.
He had said it, Austria is one of his favorite circuits, and he confirmed it: Charles Leclerc gave his rivals no chance to claim his fourth victory of the season. Already yesterday, he continued his domination in qualifying as he extends his Grand Slam in the exercise, with the fifth pole position in as many qualifying sessions.
On the grid, he was ahead of his teammate Antonio Fuoco, who has been lagging since the start of the season. The Italian benefited from the disqualification of the Brazilian Sergio Sette Camara, who had achieved the second-best time but had less than a liter of fuel in his tank. The two Prema drivers and the two ART Grand Prix drivers chose to start on medium tires, while their main rivals opted for an offensive strategy, starting on the softest tires.
But at the start of the formation lap, Nyck de Vries stalled while having high hopes by being in 6th place. The Rapax driver then had to start from the pit lane. When the lights went out, Charles Leclerc had no trouble defending his position and went through the first corner ahead of his teammate. Behind him, Oliver Rowland, second in the championship, had a very poor start, losing positions to many drivers due to a bad launch.
The soft tires proved that their lifespan was limited as the first pit stops occurred as early as the seventh lap. The first wave was already completed by the 9th of the 40 laps. This left the field open for the leading drivers. Gradually, Charles Leclerc widened the gap on his teammate, who found himself under threat from Alexander Albon, still recovering from his cycling accident that kept him out of the Baku weekend.
Antonio Fuoco was the first of the drivers on medium tires to stop, ten laps from the end. He then rejoined behind Oliver Rowland, who was in second place. However, the Italian took advantage of his fresh tires to overtake the Briton and regain second place. But Nicholas Latifi, the second DAMS driver, managed his tires perfectly until the end, allowing him to successively overtake his teammate and Antonio Fuoco, securing a third consecutive podium finish after those in Baku.
Ralph Boschung finished in 7th position, behind the top three teams, just ahead of Artem Markelov while Jordan King and Sean Gelael completed the top 10.
