Cloudy. Dry. Air +28…27С, rail +43…38С
The Austrian stage was the second of the season to feature a Saturday sprint and followed the new format tested in Baku – with two independent qualifying sessions and two races.
On Friday, after a single practice session – Verstappen showed the best time, the drivers kept their traditional qualifying and set the starting order for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Pirelli once again brought the softest tires onto the podium – C3, C4 and C5 in the role of Hard, Medium and Soft. The forecast promised rain, the sky was covered with clouds, but nothing happened – during qualifying the riders only used slicks.
In the first session everything went to Soft. Traffic was great. The riders tried to stretch out and left a clear section of the track ahead, but on such a short lap it was hard not to get in the way of each other.
The lap times of Hulkenberg, Norris, Sainz, Verstappen, Pérez and Alonso were scrapped because all wheels came off the track.
On the sixth minute, the session was halted by red flags – Bottas’ car froze after a turn into the first corner and stopped against the movement. Valtteri was unable to turn around immediately, but then he reached the pits. Six minutes later the riders were able to start again.
Verstappen led the protocol with a lap time of 1:05.116. Tsunoda, Zhou, Sargent, Magnussen and de Vries fell out of battle.
In the second session everyone went back on slicks and split the attempts between the new and rolled sets. Verstappen was already faster on the first run than in the first session, but the lap was canceled, as was Perez’s result, leaving Norris in first place with 1:04.951. In the second fast lap Max was accurate and slightly faster.
All of Perez’s fast laps in the second session were canceled and he was out of action, as were Russell, Ocon, Piastri and Bottas.
In the final Verstappen immediately set a new benchmark – 1:04.503, and on the second attempt he drove even faster – 1:04.391.
Max Verstappen won qualifying at Spielberg with 26 career poles and sixth this season. On Sunday he will share the front row with Charles Leclerc, with Sainz and Norris second and Hamilton and Stroll third.
Qualifying results
| Pilot | Team | 1 session | 2 session | 3 session | ||||||
| m | Time | kr | m | Time | kr | m | Time | kr | ||
| 1. M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 1 | 1:05.116 | 12 | 1 | 1:04.951 | 6 | 1 | 1:04.391 | 6 |
| 2. Sch. Leclerc | Ferrari | 5 | 1:05,577 | 10 | 5 | 1:05.087 | 10 | 2 | 1:04.439 | 6 |
| 3. K. Sainz | Ferrari | 3 | 1:05.339 | 10 | 2 | 1:04.975 | 9 | 3 | 1:04,581 | 6 |
| 4. L. Norris | McLaren | 6 | 1:05.617 | 12 | 3 | 1:05.038 | 5 | 4 | 1:04.658 | 6 |
| 5. L Hamilton | Mercedes | 8 | 1:05.673 | eleven | 8 | 1:05.188 | 8 | 5 | 1:04.819 | 6 |
| 6. L. Walk | Aston Martin | 12 | 1:05.710 | 10 | 6 | 1:05.121 | 9 | 6 | 1:04.893 | 6 |
| 7. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | 7 | 1:05.655 | 12 | 7 | 1:05.181 | 9 | 7 | 1:04.911 | 6 |
| 8. N. Hulkenberg | hare | 14 | 1:05.740 | 10 | 9 | 1:05.362 | 8 | 8 | 1:05.090 | 6 |
| 9.P Gasly | Alps | 4 | 1:05.515 | 9 | 4 | 1:05.084 | 6 | 9 | 1:05.170 | 6 |
| 10. A. Albon | Willems | 9 | 1:05.673 | 9 | 10 | 1:05.387 | 6 | 10 | 1:05.823 | 6 |
| 11.D Russell | Mercedes | eleven | 1:05.686 | 12 | eleven | 1:05.428 | 9 | |||
| 12. E. Okon | Alps | 13 | 1:05.729 | 9 | 12 | 1:05.453 | 6 | |||
| 13. O. Piastri | McLaren | 10 | 1:05.683 | 10 | 13 | 1:05.605 | 9 | |||
| 14. V. Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 15 | 1:05,763 | 8 | 14 | 1:05.680 | 6 | |||
| 15. C. Perez | Red Bull | 2 | 1:05.177 | 10 | 15 | 2:06,688 | 9 | |||
| 16. Y. Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 16 | 1:05,784 | 10 | ||||||
| 17. G Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 17 | 1:05.818 | 9 | ||||||
| 18. L. Sargent | Willems | 18 | 1:05,948 | 9 | ||||||
| 19. K. Magnussen | hare | 19 | 1:05.971 | 10 | ||||||
| 20.N. deVries | AlphaTauri | 20 | 1:05.974 | 10 | ||||||
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
