Max Verstappen was in a class of his own as he dominates in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, going four tenths faster than anybody else.
Q1
Due to the nature of Sprint weekends providing more competitive running, and teams having one less set of tyres, most drivers opted to start Q1 on used soft tyres, which meant that the early laps were not representative of the true pace that these cars had. As the session wore on, and drivers put new tyres onto their cars, times began to tumble, though Sainz’s fastest lap, which was the fastest of anybody’s in Q1, was still 6 tenths shy of Verstappen’s fastest lap yesterday.
RB had made some changes to their setup between the Sprint and Qualifying, given their lack of pace up to this point in the weekend. It was a mad dash to getting ready for the start of qualifying for the team, given the size of the setup changes made, but it seemed to pay off for both drivers, with Tsunoda and Ricciardo managing to finish Q1 in 8th and 9th respectively.
ELIMINATED
16. Alex Albon – Williams +0.080
17. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.163
18. Valtteri Bottas – Kick Sauber +0.191
19. Logan Sargeant – Williams +0.200
20. Zhou Guanyu – Kick Sauber +0.405
Q2
Aston Martin’s struggles this weekend continue into qualifying. Lance Stroll had already been eliminated in Q1, and whilst Alonso was barely able to escape the same fate, he was planted to the bottom of the timesheets for Q2, ending up over three tenths shy of the top 10, and will start tomorrow’s race in 15th.
Whilst RB definitely looked to have improved coming into this session, any gains made through setup were not enough to see either of their drivers make it through to the final part of qualifying, though Ricciardo was just under 2 hundredths shy of making it into the top 10.
Despite being beaten for the most part in qualifying by Hulkenberg this season, Magnussen had looked to be the faster of the two Haas drivers coming into qualifying. However, whilst both Haas cars would make it into Q2, only one would manage to make it through to Q3, and it would be Hulkenberg to do so.
ELIMINATED
11. Daniel Ricciardo – RB +0.015
12. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.073
13. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.085
14. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +0.138
15. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.365
Q3
Max Verstappen was showing everyone that it will be a very monumental task to beat him for pole position in Q3, having gone two tenths faster than his pole time in yesterday’s sprint qualifying, a little under half a second quicker than anybody else in Q2. And it would be a very similar time for Verstappen for the opening parts of Q3, with only Norris and Russell able to also go under a 1:05 time, yet still a long way behind Verstappen.
Coming round for their final laps, and other drivers would have a go at beating Verstappen’s time, but none would come close. Verstappen would even go faster on his final time, to make it a 4 tenth gap between himself and Norris in 2nd.
Charles Leclerc would also make a mistake on his final lap, going wide at turn 9 and bouncing along the runoff. Whilst he wasn’t going to be able to get pole position, it would stop him from being able to improve any further, dropping down to 7th after Hamilton and Russell went faster. Leclerc would however gain one place back after Piastri had his final lap time deleted for running ever so slightly wide at turn 6, which turned his 3rd place start for tomorrow’s race into a 7th place start.
Qualifying results
1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull 1:04.686
2. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.404
3. George Russell – Mercedes +0.526
4. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari +0.537
5. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.589
6. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.730
7. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.734
8. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.888
9. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +1.071
10. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +1.569
