Norris flies to Austrian pole position
On the back of a couple of difficult weekends, Lando Norris continued to shine in Austria. Having enjoyed solid practice sessions, the McLaren driver blew the competition away in qualifying today. Charles Leclerc was more than half a second behind in second with Piastri third fastest.
After the final practice session proved to be tricky for many, including spins, kicking up of gravel and ending up on the sausage kerbs, qualifying was set to be interesting, especially on a short circuit as the Red Bull Ring where tenths can make a massive difference.
After 7 minutes delay due to a stoppage in the preceding F2 race, Alex Albon was the first to venture out on track, followed by the Aston Martin duo, Sainz and the Haas pair. Albon ended up fastest of these first runners while Alonso backed out of his initial lap and returned to the pits before setting a time.
The track soon got a lot more busy after that with Hulkenberg and Bortoleto the first drivers to beat Albon's lap. Both Ferraris proved faster again but it was Norris who confirmed his pace from the earlier sessions by immediately going fastest, narrowly beating Verstappen. Hamilton sat third with Antonelli later slotting into 4th. They all dropped a spot when Piastri went second quickest with his first outing.
Hadjar also continued his impressive form by slotting in ahead of Leclerc with Gasly later demoting Leclerc to 8th. That put Russell in 9th, Tsunoda 10th and Lawson 11th.
With all these improvements the Kick Saubers, both Haas, the Aston Martins and both Williams were in danger, so they were again up next. Hulkenberg failed to improve due to a bad final sector while Alonso was slightly wide on the exit of Turn 4 and therefore was slowest of all.
Little more than three minutes from the end of the session it was queuing time again at the end of the pitlane with everybody eager to get out but also needing some clean air ahead of them. The result was the typical queue of snails leaving the pitlane before getting some speed out on track.
47 seconds from the end Alonso moved up into 8th thanks to a clean lap on his third new set of softs this session. As Lawson moved up into 3rd, Russell was under pressure, had a poor middle sector and crossed the finish line in 11th place. It was enough to get through while the likes of Stroll, Ocon, Tsunoda, Sainz and Hulkenberg were eliminated in Q1.
In Q2 it was Ferrari who chose to go early, giving Hamilton and Leclerc a track for themselves only. After Hamilton had been the faster of the two in Q1, the first laps of the Ferrari drivers saw Leclerc emerge ahead.
The Racing Bulls were out next and were very impressive indeed. Hadjar was first and slotted in between the Ferrari duo with a solid lap but it was Lawson who did best, topping Leclerc to go fastest, only to soon be surpassed by Verstappen.
Mercedes' George Russell followed that up with a 3rd best time but the McLarens really dominated with Norris again a tenth faster than Piastri. Just when the orange cars had shot to the top of the timesheet, the Ferari duo did another lap after a cooldown lap. It moved both Feraris up, Leclerc into third again and Hamilton into fourth, the duo split by a tiny margin.
Hamilton however was a bit wide on the final corner and so kicked up dirt and grass onto the circuit. For race control this was enough to stop the session and get the track cleaned.
The session restart in quietness as all teams decided to wait until about 4 minutes from the end to release their cars, leading to the notorious queue once again.
After Bearman posted an improvement that would eventually prove insufficient, Bortoleto posted a brilliant lap into 3rd. Verstappen and Leclerc got the better of him again before the end of the session but it was good enough for the Brazilian's first Q3 shootout. Antonelli only just saved himself at the end to the detriment of Fernando Alonso.
For the first laps in Q3 the McLarens were out first with Norris completed a solid lap good enough for provisional pole,. Piastri was little more than two tenths behind, enabling Leclerc to slot into second when he completed his first flyer. Hamilton was 4th fastest, then Russell, Verstappen, Antonelli, Bortoleto and Gasly, Lawson did not do a lap and opted for a single attempt.
The second outings were mostly useless with most drivers unable to make improvements. Russell improved but did not move up a position. Gasly spun in the final, did a double spin and calmly continued on to the pits. Bortoleto improved to 8th but it was a morale booster for Lando Norris as he found another 3 tenths, making that a half a second advantage over Leclerc at a circuit where margins are so tiny.
