2022 Austrian GP Sprint Race Preview – James Punt
2022 Austrian GP Sprint Race Update
There’s just over an hour to go until lights out at the Sprint Race which will determine the starting grid for the Austrian GP. James Punt’s pre-race ante-post preview and tips are available here. His 2022 Austrian GP Sprint Race Update is below.
2022 Austrian GP Sprint Race
The grid for the sprint race was changed after the end of qualifying as Perez was found to have exceeded track limits in Q2. He is further punished by the fact that he burned through more new tyres whilst running in Q3 and those won’t be replaced. He now starts from 13th. Also out of position is Lewis Hamilton who crashed out of Q3 and starts 9th in a new chassis. Teammate Russell also crashed in Q3 but he had already set the 5th best time and he now starts 4th after Perez’ demotion.
Max On Pole
Red Bull have the pole position with Verstappen and as he said afterwards, his car is better in races than in qualifying so he is in a good position to take the win and start from pole for the actual race proper tomorrow. There are points up for grabs in this race, 8 for the winner all the way down to one for 8th place. We have had one sprint race so far in 2022 and Verstappen won that from pole. Leclerc second from second, Perez third from seventh and Sainz fourth from tenth. That may set some sort of precedent for this afternoon and improves the chances of Perez and Hamilton bouncing back.
There has now been a total of four previous F1 sprint races. Two have been won from pole position, two from second place.
Verstappen Fav
Verstappen is the 1.50 favourite to win, Leclerc 3.50 and Sainz 10.00. Based on the scant previous form, you could argue a case for Leclerc being a bit of value, but Red Bull’s straight line performance is likely to be enough to keep the Ferraris at bay.
The bookies are not showing much enthusiasm for the sprint race, and it is just the outright winner market which is available. I share their lack of enthusiasm for what is basically a dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s big event. Drivers will want to score points, but equally they do not want to screw up and start the main event out of place.
Perez and Hamilton will have to be more racy if they are to recover from their lowly starting positions, so they will be the ones to watch. They have much fewer laps in which to make up ground and they cannot just go hell for leather as tomorrow is when the big points are awarded.
No bets for me.
