How Leclerc beat Verstappen in Red Bull’s backyard after F1 sprint defeat

Charles Leclerc had to give second best to Max Verstappen in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring and then followed him home in Saturday's sprint race. But the Ferrari ace remained hopeful of turning the tables on Sunday and delivered in confident fashion with three on-track passes on the reigning world champion. Here's how Leclerc secured a morale-boosting win after a run of difficult results

Matt Kew Jul 11, 2022, 8:22 AM

Upd: Jul 11, 2022, 10:20 AM

Three days in Austria reaffirmed that Ferrari still has plenty to address before it’s on a truly even footing with Red Bull. Team orders indecision and pitstop strategy leave plenty to be desired, while a big question mark continues to loom over reliability.

Those shortcomings ensured the Scuderia didn’t inflict maximum damage on points leader Max Verstappen and his team last weekend. Nevertheless, it has now won two races in a row. And this time, Charles Leclerc triumphed on enemy soil because he executed the race brilliantly in a car that was demonstrably the pick of the litter.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.