Spielberg, 11 July 2022 (dpa/MIA) - Ferrari's Charles Leclerc ended a long dry spell when he impressively beat championship leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull for victory at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday. Leclerc triumphed for the first time in three months and third time of the season as Ferrari got their strategy right to get him back onto the podium for the first time in six races. But it was a nervy finale for the Scuderia as first their second car from Carlos Sainz went up in flames after an engine failure, and Leclerc then complained about throttle issues in the final laps, saying via team radio "I was really scared." Leclerc won from Saturday's sprint race winner Verstappen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton to return into second place in the championship, 38 points behind Verstappen and 19 ahead of Sergio Perez who retired in the other Red Bull. "I definitely needed that one. The last five races have been incredibly difficult for myself and for the team," Leclerc said. "To finally show that we have the pace in the car and we can do it is incredible. We need to push until the end." Verstappen said: "It was a tricky day, it seemed like we were struggling a bit with the tyres and that continued on every single compound. "I had too much degradation to really attack Charles especially but nevertheless second place is a good result on a difficult day." Verstappen won the start into Red Bull's home race while George Russell of Mercedes got past Sainz for third but the Spaniard countered just seconds later to re-take third. Perez then also tried to get past Russell but the cars touched when he cut inside coming out of turn four. Perez spun into the gravel and dropped to last place before retiring later while Russell was given a five-second penalty over the incident but recovered to finish fourth. Verstappen was unable to open a gap over Leclerc and was under attack from lap 10, defending himself well twice before Leclerc finally got the lead two laps later on the inside in turn four. Verstappen pitted in lap 14 and had to work his way up to third before regaining the lead when the Ferraris also picked up fresh rubbers. Leclerc was back up front in lap 33, with Verstappen complaining about grip problems, and got past his rival a third time in lap 53 after all had made second stop. But Ferrari had to sweat it out when last week's British GP winner Sainz suffered his mishap - and got out of the burning car rather late - and Leclerc complained about throttle problems against a charging Verstappen but managed to bring the car home for victory. "It was a really good race. The pace was there. At the beginning we had some good fights with Max and the end was incredibly difficult," Verstappen said. "I had this issue with the throttle. It would get stuck at 20 or 30 per cent throttle in the low speeds, so it was very tricky. We managed to make it stick until the end and I am so happy." Seven-time world champion Hamilton was happy with a third straight third-place finish after crashing in qualifying and coming eighth in the sprint. "We made some improvements this weekend so we just have to keep chipping away at it," he said. Mick Schumacher of Haas meanwhile drove into the points for the second straight time as he finished a career-best sixth. Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri and McLaren's Lando Norris received five-second penalties for exceeding track limits too often, and Gasly another five over a collission with Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel.