The qualifying session at the Austrian Grand Prix saw McLaren's Lando Norris secure pole position in a dominant fashion while Ferrari delivered their best qualifying result of the season. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers teams' and drivers' reactions from the Red Bull Ring.

McLaren

“A frustrating end to what was otherwise a positive session. Gasly spun in front of me at the last corner and brought out the Yellow Flags, which meant I didn’t get to open my second lap in Q3.

"I think we easily had the pace to be on the front row, especially as Lando was so quick, but we can have a good race from P3. I think there will be opportunities tomorrow and I’m not planning on finishing third.”

“I’m really pleased with that. My first lap in Q3 was good, but I knew there were still a few places where I could find a little bit more, and that’s exactly what I did.

"It’s been a good weekend for me so far, the performance throughout the sessions has been great, and hopefully we can keep it up. It's a long race tomorrow but I am looking forward to it.”

Ferrari

"I’m pleased with today’s result. The whole team has been pushing and we brought some upgrades here, so this result is also thanks to everyone’s collective effort.

"Congratulations to Lando (Norris) for his lap, he deserves it. It has been a while since we started on the front row, so hopefully, we can use the pace we have in race trim to put some pressure on the McLaren ahead of us."

"The car felt much better today after the changes we made overnight. We’ve done a really good job as a team to improve the package, so a big thank you to everyone at the track and back at the factory for their continued hard work. Our pace was encouraging yesterday, and with the step forward we’ve made today, I’m feeling positive about what’s possible tomorrow."

Mercedes

"We knew this track was going to be a challenging one for us. We know our strengths and weaknesses and with a circuit that features high-speed corners and an abrasive tarmac like here, it was always going to be tough to put together a good single lap. P5 is probably the maximum we could have done today in these conditions.

"The gap between Lando (Norris) and us is not really surprising. The McLarens have been doing a great job so far and I don’t think we will be able to challenge them tomorrow. However, I think we do have a chance to fight with both Ferraris ahead and this is what we will be aiming for. Let’s see what we can do but fingers crossed we are in the battle for the podium."

"I am really disappointed in how things went in Qualifying today. The potential was there and I was improving lap after lap. Not being able to complete my last single lap is therefore a real shame. I know I had the potential to fight for the top five, similarly to George, so this is one that got away from us. Traffic is always a challenge around such a short circuit but nevertheless, it is frustrating not to get the chance to show what we could do.

"I am positive going into tomorrow's race though. The overall balance of the car is good and the learnings I made throughout the weekend have helped me improve massively. Tomorrow is going to be challenging with high track temperatures and tyre management won’t be easy, but I do feel confident we can make up positions."

Racing Bulls

"It was a disappointing Saturday. Yesterday we were not in a good position, but overnight, we turned things around thanks to some right changes to the car setup. They paid off in Q1 and I felt another Q3 was possible. Sadly though, during my lap in Q2 I had a different feeling with the car; I just had understeer in high-speed and I felt like the tyres were not ready for Turn 1.

"It’s a shame because my Q1 lap could have been good enough for Q3. I don’t know what happened and how we could have gone backwards from there, as we nailed the traffic and usually we make progress besides being very consistent in tyre warm-up.

"We’ll review everything with the team tonight, but looking at tomorrow, we’re not really far off and as positives we have new tyres left, so with a good strategy I think we can aim for points.”

"I’m really pleased to have made it through to Q3, it’s a great result and I’m very happy with how everything came together. I’ve never seen such a close Qualifying before, so it’s nice to be on the right side of it this time.

"We’ve had the pace over the last few races, but today it finally clicked and we managed to put it all together. The Team has done a fantastic job, especially everyone on my side of the garage who’ve been working incredibly hard. Tomorrow is when it really counts. It’s going to be a tough race with the field so tightly packed, and we’ll do our best to keep the competition behind us.

"The strategy remains quite open, we will work hard over night to put the plan together. My focus will be on getting a clean start and making the right decisions in the car.”

Red Bull

“So far this weekend it has not been the easiest, FP3 earlier today was more positive than qualifying but we were still off the pace and the hotter weather conditions didn’t help.

"Our balance was off and there isn’t much that you can do about it once you feel it out on track, that was similar to the situation with our grip, it was difficult to know whether to push the car or not. Pierre spun out which caused a yellow flag and that certainly didn’t help us as I had to abort the lap.

"Even if I had completed it, it still would have only put me around P3 or P4 which would still have been five or six tenths off pole. I don’t think that it will be easy out there tomorrow but we will analyse everything post quali to give us the best chance in the race tomorrow.”

“I am feeling bad, especially because the pace has been good throughout the week and then it was about putting it all together today. So, it is really frustrating that Qualifying has not gone the way I wanted. I am tired of it not going the way we want. We need to be able to put it all together and there was too much difference from lap one to lap two.

"I struggled with the balance quite a lot, it felt very different from my first push to my second. Something happened between those runs and we need to figure out what was different about the car, it could have been to do with a flap adjustment between the runs. I know there is something good to come from us, the first push actually felt pretty good, and it had consistently felt good with the car but I didn’t have that comfortable feeling in the car when it counted, on the last push.

"The gap to Max was small in Q1 and especially in these tight qualifying sessions we need to work to get the car in a more consistent window, that feels more reliable lap to lap. Tomorrow will be difficult, but I will do my best to make it up."

Kick Sauber

“Definitely not the qualifying result I was expecting. Unfortunately, I made a mistake into Turn Four – I locked up the front right and ran wide, missing the apex. It was costly in terms of lap time, and obviously frustrating, especially knowing the potential we had in the car today.

"It’s disappointing, no doubt, but the recent progress we’ve made has been encouraging. Starting from the back tomorrow won’t be easy – traffic is guaranteed – but we know our car has decent race pace. We’ll go through all strategic options tonight and aim to fight our way back. Tomorrow is about maximising every opportunity and pushing hard to recover. Congrats to Gabi on his first Q3 appearance and P8 on the grid!”

"I am delighted to have made it into Q3 for the first time today. It’s been a great weekend so far, where everything came together just right. As a team, we have worked tirelessly, testing different setups, learning from both the successes and the setbacks, and consistently staying competitive.

"From the beginning of the season, I have believed in the potential of this team and our ability to keep improving, even when we were starting from a difficult position. Reaching Q3 for the first time - especially at a track that holds special meaning for me - is a fantastic milestone.

"It is a clear sign that all the effort, patience, and teamwork are paying off. I am proud of the progress we have made, but I also know the job is only halfway done: we must stay focused ahead of tomorrow, in order to keep up with the momentum and hopefully convert this qualifying result into my first points finish."

Alpine

“While I am pleased to be in Q3, I am not too happy with my mistake at the final corner when I was on a decent lap. I was pushing the absolute limit, too much in the end, and had the spin, fortunately avoiding any damage.

"Up until then, I was really pushing the car a lot in Q1 and Q2 to put ourselves in contention for the top ten. It is fine margins sometimes and the positive is that clearly the performance and potential was there in the car today. We worked hard to find those improvements after Practice and we need to take these learnings forward at every race.

"Tomorrow, we start in tenth place and we need a good start and see what we can do from there. It is exciting that we are in the mix, better than we anticipated, and now we need to aim to stay there and score some points.”

“Generally, we made a good step from where we were yesterday, but I feel like there was more out there today. When you see how small the margins are it's very close, so without the little mistake at Turn 3 which cost us a tenth and a half, it probably cost us the chance of progressing to the next session.

"The wind picked up in the afternoon, which made the car a bit unpredictable but was the same for everyone. The car felt better, especially in the low speed, however, I was struggling with confidence in the high speed compared to previous sessions, so there's still a bit of work to do there.

"I feel like I'm still finding my feet through certain corners and understanding which direction to go with the car. The focus is now on tomorrow and we will give it our all to try and move forward in the race.”

Aston Martin

"I am quite happy with P11 today. We were very close to making Q3 and it gives us a good opportunity to score points tomorrow. It has been a tricky few sessions here so far and I haven’t been completely comfortable behind the wheel.

"Tomorrow will be a tough race for everyone, especially with the hot conditions, so we will need to be clever and flexible with our strategy. If we get everything right, there is definitely a chance to move forward and fight for some points."

"I was obviously hoping for more after we showed some early signs of decent pace in the practice sessions, but the conditions changed ahead of Qualifying and we weren’t as competitive. I think the hotter temperatures impacted us and the car was not coming alive as much in these conditions.

"I was struggling with grip and car balance, and I suspect it was due to the heat, but we will need to look at it in more detail. It’s going to be challenging tomorrow, but we will see what we can do."

Williams

"We collected some damage on the floor during Q1, and the mechanics did a fantastic job to tape up as much as we could to go back out. Our Q2 run on fresh tyres had to be aborted due to the red flag, and despite using old tyres on a damaged car, we still qualified P12 so I’m pretty happy with that.

"There were some glimpses of pace in Q1 but we couldn't replicate the same lap times while carrying damage. I’m still really happy with the execution of Q2 and, without damage, we had a car capable of reaching Q3. Tomorrow I hope there will be some good racing and we can try to have a good result; I’m optimistic we can go and get some points."

"A frustrating Qualifying. We had a brake issue from the start of the session which was making the car pull massively to one side and I ended up picking up floor damage which made the car undriveable.

"Overall, we need to pull together as a team and review what’s causing this run of form in Qualifying and on the Soft tyre. For tomorrow, we seemed to have good race pace yesterday so I will give it all to recover and get into the points."

Haas

“I don’t think we’ve optimised today, I definitely think we have more pace than we’ve shown. We lacked two tenths in the first two corners, and there was no improvement through the runs, plus the grip didn’t feel good.

"That was enough to put me out in Q1, as we were missing one tenth. Tomorrow, there’s opportunity to come back as there’s going to be lots of stops and a bit more degradation than normal, so it’s going to be an interesting race.”

“In Q1 the feeling was much better, despite not having the best lap from my side, we still managed to get through. In Q2, I definitely felt more dialled in but the wind seemed to pick up and I think we struggled a bit more compared to others with those conditions.

"We have two new sets of hard tyres for tomorrow, which lots of others don’t have, and although we lost a set of softs in quali and expected to have a difficult session, I’m glad to be where we are. I think we could’ve been a few more positions up, but I’m optimistic about the race tomorrow.”