The Friday in F1 Austrian GP was a busy one being a spring weekend where Max Verstappen looked a touch strong for the competition around him.
It was a busy Friday in F1 Austrian GP at Red Bull Ring due to the sprint weekend with just FP1 to play with for the drivers and teams. But Red Bull and Verstappen ruled it mostly after he headed not just FP1 but each of the sprint shootout sessions too.
He had enough to take pole despite the power unit scare in FP1. Teammate Sergio Perez was down once again but made it into SQ3 as he lamented slow pit exit run against Esteban Ocon made it difficult with tyre warm-up for his final attempt.
The McLaren pair – with new front wing – looked consistent, both in practice and qualifying. Lando Norris ended up ahead of Oscar Piastri, but for the Australian it was a welcome return to pace after a low-key outing in Barcelona.
They triumphed both the Mercedes and Ferrari cars. George Russell once again got the better of Lewis Hamilton, who termed the shootout as a disaster on his side after a decent FP1. Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, won the battle against Charles Leclerc.
The Monegasque couldn’t set a lap time after his car went into anti-stall while he was about to leave the pitlane. It leaves them quite far off, but most certainly ahead of the Aston Martin pair, who were knocked out in SQ2 with Lance Stroll ahead of Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen: “It was a positive day, to be honest. I’m happy. We started the day well, the car was really in a good window. [There was] the niggle with the sensor, but we fixed that quickly. Then heading into qualifying, I think the car was pretty strong. I could push. Of course there will always be areas where we can do better, so we’ll look at that tonight. But, yeah, definitely a good start to the weekend. Yeah, at the end of the day when really everyone is pushing flat-out, they are again behind me, so for sure they’re quick as well. And yeah, we seem quick in the high-speed, which of course is nice around here. Hopefully we can keep that going also tomorrow, but of course the Sprint will give us an early indication of how the pace will be in the race for every car, so I’m looking forward to that.”
Norris: “I think reasonably good, to be honest. I never got quite comfortable probably until my final lap, so I’m happy with that. It was close, as it has been the whole year, so no difference. It must have been a nice lap by Max. A good position for the race tomorrow. From what we see at the minute, yes. But otherwise, I’m not sure [about taking the fight to Verstappen].”
Hamilton: “The whole session was pretty disastrous from my point. What can I say? Practice felt good, the car generally felt good. I don’t think we had the pace obviously to be on pole, but… Yeah, very bad laps – every single one of them. Who knows? I don’t think overtaking is like mega here, but we’ll give it our best. It’s usually not such an eventful race, so I think focus will be mostly on getting a better qualifying tomorrow.”
Leclerc: “I don’t know what happened… I was in the pit lane and I got the anti-stall and then everything switched off. I have… The team told me that we will speak when I’ll be back in the garage, but obviously I went straight from the car to here so I don’t know. We weren’t super strong but definitely better than P10, so it’s a bit disappointing. We’ll look at what happened and tomorrow we’ll try to have a good Sprint race to come back in the front.”
Perez: “I think we were making good progress. My [SQ2] lap one wasn’t ideal, I went deep into Turn 3, so I went again and I was finding the time. But I think we were in the mix today. Unfortunately I don’t know what Esteban was doing there, whether he apparently had to drive really slowly. I did my final lap within half a second from him, and basically there was no chance. It’s a shame because I think we [had] a more promising pace today, so unfortunately we were not able to maximise it today. I think we should have been in the mix today, but for circumstances out of our control we didn’t end up where we needed to be, and I’m confident that tomorrow will be a better day.”
Alonso: “It was very tight out there as we expected. I was quite happy with my laps in Sprint Qualifying and I felt we extracted the maximum lap-time in both SQ1 and SQ2. Sadly, it wasn’t enough to make it into SQ3 today. I think it will be very difficult to score any points tomorrow, but we will take as much information from the Sprint race as possible.”
The loss for Aston Martin was a gain for the Alpine pair, who once again made it inside the Top 10 where Ocon was ahead this time of Pierre Gasly while running the lighter chassis. It was also a better run for Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, who felt good in qualifying.
His teammate Nico Hulkenberg was not in harmony to be out in SQ1, with Williams’ Alexander Albon also facing the heat, whereas teammate Logan Sargeant did make it in SQ2. It was the first time that the American beat the Thai in a qualifying stint.
It was same for Visa Cash App RB where one car made it in SQ2, but Yuki Tsunoda rued the off in SQ1 which cost him damage to his car while Daniel Ricciardo lamented small margins. Both the Stake F1 Team cars also faced SQ1 exit.
Ocon: “I’m happy to have reached SQ3 today and starting in eighth place for tomorrow. Again, we reached the top ten in Qualifying as a team, which is another good performance. SQ3 was far from straightforward as we were at the back of the queue. We probably got a little fortunate with Charles missing the flag at the end and gained a position as a result. Even so, the positive is we performed well and we are in a good position in the Sprint Race. We still have work to do and things to understand but it’s pleasing to be heading in a good direction.”
Magnussen: “It was a good qualifying, smooth and clean, and we didn’t have any traffic! We came out on track firstly with no traffic, but also with the best track evolution, and I feel for the first time this year – although it’s pretty late – it’s the first fully clean and well-executed qualifying, so we have to keep this up. The feel of the car hasn’t been perfect, on the medium tire it feels like we are reasonably competitive on one lap, but over a long run I didn’t really know so we’ll see in the Sprint tomorrow how that goes and which tire we race on.”
Sargeant: “SQ1 was a good build-up, however in SQ2, I didn’t quite get Turn 1 and 3 right, attempting to make it up in the second half of the lap. I managed this, but then clipped the gravel in Turn 6 and that was unfortunately out. I’m still happy with my session and think it’s a good place to be starting tomorrow. The conditions are changing from session to session. We are being proactive with set-up and countering the differences and I feel like we did a good job and turned things around from FP1 to Sprint Qualifying, so we’ll just keep trying to do a bit more of the same. It’s been a good step forward from Barcelona.”
Tsunoda: “I’m not happy with today. For sure, the second run in SQ1 with my spin in the last sector compromised our SQ2 run. I over-pushed and went slightly over the limit in Turn 7, and I think I damaged the floor already there and not necessarily when I spun out in Turn 10. It wasn’t the ideal way to enter SQ2, especially with the adaptation in driving style. It’s a shame and definitely towards me; I’ll take the blame and move forward.”
Bottas: “The feeling with the car had been quite decent so far, and I was expecting our lap times to be better; I had two clean laps, and although the second one was deleted because of track limits, it wouldn’t have made much of a different, as it was only two hundredths of a second faster. Unfortunately, we are still quite lacking when it comes to single-lap pace. Tomorrow’s Sprint will be a tough job starting from the back of the grid, especially in a short race with no pit stops, but we will still have a chance to go for a set-up change afterwards. We’ll put all our focus on maximising these learnings, looking to improve our performance in tomorrow’s main Qualifying and on Sunday.”
