Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen will be chasing his fourth Austrian Grand Prix victory in five years this weekend as Red Bull seek to return to the top of the podium at their home race.
Max Verstappen Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The team, belonging to the Austrian energy drinks manufacturer that also owns the Red Bull Ring, had a run of six consecutive wins ended by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz at last weekend's British Grand Prix.
It was a first win for the Spaniard, with Verstappen only seventh after his car was damaged by debris from sister team AlphaTauri.
That cost the Dutch driver, who had led early on, what would have been a seventh win of the year but Spielberg is the ideal place to bounce back.
He has won four times in Austria -- three in the Austrian Grand Prix and the fourth in last year's Styrian Grand Prix at the same track.
Verstappen is 34 points clear of Mexican team mate Sergio Perez and 43 ahead of Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc, with Austria the halfway point of the 22-race season.
Buoyed up by his army of orange-clad fans, the 24-year-old will be favourite to win again around the undulating layout, with the weekend running to the Sprint format.
That means a race on Saturday to set the starting grid and a maximum of 34 points available over the weekend instead of the usual 26.
Verstappen won the only other Sprint so far this year, at Italy's Imola in April.
Leclerc, fuming after Ferrari kept him out on old tyres behind the safety car at Silverstone in a move that dropped him from first to fourth, will be especially fired up to beat Verstappen.
He lost a wheel-banging battle for the lead against the Dutchman in the closing stages of the race in 2019 and needs a win to rein in his rival.
"There are three more challenging races coming up before the summer break and, as Silverstone showed again, each race this year is absolutely unpredictable,Gǥ said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto.
"We will make sure that we have our cars ready for the challenge and present ourselves as a strong team and a strong unit."
Mercedes have won at the Red Bull Ring five times since the venue returned to the calendar in 2014.
At Silverstone, they appeared to have made a big improvement to their difficult 2022 car, with Lewis Hamilton hunting down the Ferraris in pursuit of a record-extending 104th win.
The Briton finished third and, while Red Bull and Ferrari still hold the edge on outright pace, Mercedes will once again be hoping to put their cars in the fight.
"Overall it was a pleasing result for us," said the team's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. "But we need to build on this performance because we know that we're not quite quick enough just yet."
Verstappen supporters at the Austrian Grand Prix Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Formula One statistics for the Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg, round 11 of the 22-race championship:
Lap distance: 4.318km. Total distance: 306.452km (71 laps)
2021 pole position: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull one minute 03.720 seconds.
2021 race winner: Verstappen.
Lap record: Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Mercedes 1:02.939, 2020 (qualifying).
Start time: 1400GMT (1500 local)
AUSTRIA
The circuit in the Austrian Alps is owned by Red Bull. It has the shortest lap, in terms of time, on the calendar and just 10 corners.
The track features aggressive kerbs and is hard on suspension. The weather can also be unpredictable.
Hamilton (2016), team mate Valtteri Bottas (2017, 2020) and Red Bull's Max Verstappen (2018, 2019, 2021) are the only drivers on the current grid to have won the Austrian GP.
Hamilton won the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix, and Verstappen won in 2021, at the same circuit.
RACE WINS
Red Bull have won seven of 10 races this season and Ferrari the other three. Verstappen has won six, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc two and Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz one each.
Hamilton has a record 103 wins from 298 starts. He has yet to win this year, his worst start to a season since 2009, and his most recent success was in Saudi Arabia last December.
Ferrari have won 241 races since 1950, McLaren 183, Mercedes 124, Williams 115 and Red Bull 82.
POLE POSITION
Leclerc has been on pole six times this year, Verstappen twice, Perez and Sainz once each.
Hamilton has a record 103 career poles, most recently qualifying fastest in Saudi Arabia last year.
FASTEST LAP
Six drivers have taken fastest laps this season.
Leclerc took the bonus point in the first three races, Verstappen in Imola and Miami, Perez in Spain and Azerbaijan, McLaren's Lando Norris in Monaco, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in Canada and Hamilton in Britain.
POINTS
Verstappen leads Perez by 34 points and is 43 clear of Leclerc. Red Bull lead Ferrari by 63 points in the constructors' standings.
No driver has scored in every race this year, George Russell's run ending at Silverstone.
MILESTONE
Hamilton has now gone 11 races without a win, the first time that has happened in his F1 career. He did set a record for most podium finishes at one track, third place at Silverstone last Sunday being his 13th there.
Mick Schumacher scored the first points of his Formula One career by finishing eighth for Haas in the British Grand Prix, his 31st start. He is the third member of the Schumacher family, after father Michael and uncle Ralf, to score.
Sainz is the second Spanish driver to win a grand prix, and he did it in his 150th start -- the second longest wait in Formula One history after Perez's 190 races until his first win.
The Spaniard is also Formula One's 112th winner and the 40th for Ferrari.
Alpine's Fernando Alonso broke Kimi Raikkonen's record of 92,596km (57,536 miles) driven in grands prix.
-Reuters
