Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc won the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, but feared another technical issue would prevent him from taking victory at the Red Bull Ring, as he encountered throttle problems in the last few laps of the race. Charles was still able to hold on and beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Monegasque driver passed Max Verstappen for the first time after a late move into Turn Four earlier in the afternoon, but again found himself the Dutchman as Ferrari decided to go long in the first stint. No problem for Charles, who took advantage of fresher tyres and overtook his title rival a second time. Charles Leclerc made another pit stop before once more clearing the Red Bull driver, as his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz was also about to pass the RB18 of Max Verstappen for second place, only to suffer a fiery scare, with a power unit failure that forced him to retire.
The moment led to a Virtual Safety Car which gave Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen the opportunity to pit once again, but the end of the race was intense and nervous for the Monegasque, who began to feel issues with his throttle, leading to fears that he may not finish the race or would be caught by the Red Bull car in the final laps of the Austrian Grand Prix.
Luckily, Charles was able to manage the three-second gap after the race restart and secured his third race of the 2022 Formula 1 season, after the victories in Bahrain and Australia a few months ago:
“It was a really good race,” Charles Leclerc said after his amazing victory in Austria – “I mean, the pace was there, at the beginning we had a good fight with Max, and in the end it was incredibly difficult. I had this problem with the throttle, and it would get stuck at twenty or thirty percent throttle in the low speed [corners]. So, it was very tricky but we managed to make it stick until the end, and I am so, so happy.” – he added.
The Monegasque was asked about his pedal troubles, which appeared a few moments after his Maranello teammate had to retire from the race: “Yeah, weirdly it was more or less at the same time. So, of course I had it in my mind; I knew it was not a problem with the engine because it was really the pedal that was feeling weird, first at pickup and then at the end it would not come back to zero. But yeah, luckily it went until the end of the race.” – he continued.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma! Enter the online Puma Store and shop securely! And get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
The result at the Red Bull Ring circuit means Charles Leclerc recovers a few points against Max Verstappen and takes second place back from Sergio Perez in the championship given the fact that the Mexican also suffered a DNF, due to a first lap incident with the Mercedes of George Russell. The 24-year-old is 38 points behind Max Verstappen, who set the fastest lap on Sunday, so the win at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg was very important:
“I definitely needed that one. I mean, the last five races have been incredibly difficult for myself but also for the team, obviously. And to finally show that we’ve got the pace in the car and that we can do it is incredible so yeah, we need to push until the end.” – the Ferrari driver concluded at the end of the 202 Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Leave a Reply