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A busy weekend saw Max Verstappen pull off a clean sweep of every practice, qualifying, shootout, sprint and race session at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. There was a more up and down time for a poorly Sergio Perez, a return to form for Charles Leclerc, a relapse for Mercedes, Lando Norris coming good for McLaren, and egg all over the face of race control with the track limits debacle to end them all.
Nico Hulkenberg (SP6, Engine/Lap 11, 3 pts): 7.5/10
The sprint race weekend should be ideal for Haas, because the fewer the number of laps involved the more chance the VF-23 has of getting through them without chewing up and spitting out its tyres. In short bursts it shows real speed, as proved by Nico Hulkenberg getting through to the final round of both Friday qualifying and the Saturday showdown. When it came to the sprint he did well to pick up spots at the start and maintain position for the opening half, and was then lucky to benefit from drying track conditions allowing him to pit to exchange intermediates for slicks at just the right moment. It gave him a new lease of life for the closing stage that allowed him to blast past other cars trying to limp home on the original green-walled compound. He was deservedly rewarded with fifth place at the end of the 24-lap outing and a shiny three point donation to the Haas points locker - which is just as well because his Grand Prix on Sunday lasted only half that distance before the power unit decided it didn't want to play any more and left him idling by the trackside.
Yuki Tsunoda (SP16, P19): 4/10
There were few redeeming features for AlphaTauri this weekend, which seems to be resigned to coasting to the wooden spoon this season now that Williams have perked up ahead of them. Yuki Tsunoda lost out to traffic in qualifying and missed the first cut, but did better in the wet showdown and put himself 13th on the grid for the sprint but unfortunately made no headway in the race and ended up 16th. “We didn't have enough pace, not enough straight line speed," he admitted. It got worse in the race on Sunday where he suffered a sudden rush of blood to the head and ploughed into the back of Esteban Ocon at the first corner, and the loss of downforce from a broken wing meant he went into the gravel at the next turn. He recovered and continued but got a series of track limit penalties for his pains. "I was very aggressive from the start, probably too much," he said afterwards (y'think?), speculating about floor damage from the first lap incident. A seriously retrograde step for Yuki who really should know better by now
