Some robust defending from Verstappen at🍒 the star🐼t of Saturday’s sprint race saw him maintain the lead from Leclerc, who lost momentum and then came under attack from teammate Sainz. 

An intense battle between the Ferrari pair over second place in the early laps gave Verstappen crucial breathing space to pull clear out fro𝐆nt and enabled the Red Bull driver to manage the🐟 gap. 

By the time Leclerc had covered off Sainz, Verstappen was nearly three seconds💎 up the road and well on his way to claiming a comfortable victory and secure pole position for Sunday’﷽s main race. 

While Leclerc was unsure if he would have been able to chal🥀lenge Verstappen for the win without t𒐪he fight with Sainz, he urged Ferrari to avoid a repeat in the grand prix. 

"I think tomorrow is going to be a long race and tyre management is going to be quite a bit more important compared t👍o today,” said Leclerc. 

"So probabꦡly tomorrow we🐭 cannot afford to do what we did today, no.” 

Aske✨d how much time he lost while battling Sainz, Leclerc replied: “A little bit. 

“Whether this was enough to get the win, I don’t think so because Max was also managing the gap. We will n🐈ever know what would have happened.” 

Sainz descr༒ibed his battle with Leclerc as “good fun” and felt there was little to gain or lose for Ferrari as a result. 

“There was very little to gain or to lose by the fight,” said the Spaniard. “We are talking about one point more, one point less because with the sprint, there are not many points.&n෴bsp;

“Also, Max looked very in control tꦓhe whole race up fro꧂nt, so it’s not like we lost out massively.” 

However, Verstappen, whꦬo has now extended lead over Leclerc to 44 points, acknowledged that Ferrari’s intra-team battle helped him to pull a decisive gap early on. 

“They had a little fight in the beginning of the race so that I could pull a gap and then control the gap,” said the Dutch🥃man.

“But you could s🃏ee towards the end of the race, we were very closely matched in pace. So I do expect tomorrow to be a tight race.”

Will Ferrari resort to ‘rules of engagement’?

Speaking before the sprint, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto stressed th🌳at his side will continue to prioritise the “fastest car on track” for the time being, rather than the driver who is ahead in the championship. 

“I'm pretty h🎉appy to see those two drivers fighti🌳ng,” he explained. 

“I know that whe♏n there are team orders, everybody's blaming us because we should have a free fight and when we got the free fight, then you should have team orders, so whatever you're doing is always wrong. 

“And I remember 20 years ago here in Austria, I have heard the booing from the grandstands [when 🌸Ferrari instructed Rubens Barrichello to give up a win for Michael Schumacher on the last lap of the race in 2002] because I was here. 

“So, again, I think it's always ಞdelicate and each single person after the race knows how we should deal with the situations. But once again, what ♚we are trying to do is maximise the team points, which I'm pretty sure is the right choice.”

Asked if there is a need for rules of engagement to be implemented on Sunday, Sainz replied: “Mattia will decide and the team.&nb🅷sp;

“It’s not like we lost a lot and it looked like Max wasn’t pa▨nicking too much up front with our pace. 

“We need to stay closer a⛎t the beginning of the stint and be closer at the end of the stint. This is what we need to try and do tomorrow.”

Leclerc added: “We’v🐠e lost a lit🍎tle bit of time but then again when Max got the gap he managed his pace, so we will never know. 

“I felt like we ܫwere strong towards the end, probably stronger than the beginning, whether it would have been enough, I don’t know.”