Verstappen SMASHES F1 sprint record

Max Verstappen has obliterated the record for the greatest amount of time between first and second-place in an F1 sprint race, as the two-time world champion continued his dominance of the sport in Styria.

In a change to the normal programme, the Austrian Grand Prix hosted one of six sprint weekends on the 2023 calendar. Doubling from last year's total of three, Austria follows Azerbaijan, with Belgium, Qatar, USA (Austin) and Brazil still to come.

And even though the main racing was taking place on the Sunday, Verstappen refused to, quite literally, take his foot off the gas.

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The championship leader won the Austrian Sprint by a whopping 21.048 seconds over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez. No Sprint event prior to this had been won by over five seconds.

The Dutchman has been victorious in four of the eight Sprints so far. He is the only driver to win the event in each year of its existence since its introduction at Silverstone in 2021.

Verstappen unsure over sprint format

Despite his success, back in April, Verstappen unleashed a scathing criticism of the new sprint format.

He said: "I hope there won't be too many changes, otherwise I won't be around for too long.

"I am not a fan of it at all. When we do all that kind of stuff, the weekend becomes very intense and we already do a lot of races."

"A sprint race is all about surviving and not racing," he added. "It's not worth taking a risk when you have a quick car. I prefer to keep my car alive to make sure I have a good race car for Sunday.

"Even if you change the format, I don't find it is in the DNA of Formula 1 to do these kind of sprint races."

Stats curated by Sundaram Ramaswami, @f1statsguru on Twitter.

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