Red Bull's Max Verstappen maintained his 100% record in season sprint races after holding off a McLaren challenge at the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday.
Verstappen won from sprint pole as he was able to counter a passing move from Lando Norris in lap five by retaking the lead in the next turn. He never looked back again to win from the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Norris.
Triple world champion Verstappen has also won the first two season sprints in China and Miami. There are six sprint races overall this season.
Verstappen on top after 'exciting battles'
Having not looked as dominant as last season earlier this year, Verstappen has pulled away in the standings after winning the last two races in Canada and Spain despite the growing McLaren threat.
Success on the home track of Red Bull was sweet, and he will now be out to win Sunday's grand prix as well, with qualifying set for later Saturday.
"It was spicy but a good result," Verstappen said via team radio.
He added post-race: "A few exciting battles as well but once we cleared the DRS, I could do my own race and it was better. You could see they had two cars pushing flat-out trying to make it difficult for me.
"A few things to think about we can do better for tomorrow because it's a longer race and harder for the tyres. It will be interesting to see how that evolves."
Piastri lacks pace after climbing into second
Piastri said he made the most of the duel between Verstappen and Norris but that he "just didn’t quite have the pace in the second half" of the race.
"I was hoping I would get both but just bided my time and tried my best. I think I had probably one opportunity to try to get Max the lap after but just didn’t quite have the pace after that."
Verstappen proves his class after aborted start
The initial start was aborted, reportedly over safety concerns around the positioning of photographers at turn one, which reduced the sprint to 23 laps due to another formation lap.
Verstappen then had a superb start while Norris had to defend himself against Piastri, and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz got past George Russell of Mercedes into fourth.
Norris stormed into the lead in lap five but Verstappen countered immediately on the inside at the next turn, and Piastri used the moment to sneak past Norris as well from the outside a few seconds later.
Verstappen coasted home 4.6 seconds ahead of Piastri while Russell reclaimed fourth from Sainz, with Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc in the other Ferrari, up three from 10th on the grid.
