Russell takes pole for Austrian Grand Prix, toppling Ferrari duo
George Russell has taken pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix after being cleared by the stewards for a yellow flag infringement. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc ended up second fastest while Lewis Hamilton secured third on tomorrow's grid.
Qualifying began with the Cadillac duo started proceedings, soon followed by Haas, Williams and the Aston Martins. Their initial times were all pretty poor with both Cadillacs, both Astons and Ocon all in the danger zone just past halfway into the session.
By then, everybody had had a go, with Russell going surprisingly early as well, albeit only managing an average lap that would get improved upon by 7 drivers. Antonelli sat atop the timing sheet and calm in the box with 5 minutes remaining. Both Ferraris, McLarens and Red Bulls also seemed safe after a single lap.
Gasly was closest to the top teams in 9th, followed by Bearman, Lawson and Lindblad just before the track got busy again with drivers attempting for find more for the second part of qualifying, or otherwise trying to secure a spot. Hadjar and Piastri for instance went out while considered safe while Leclerc in 7th didn't bother.
One minute from the end Colapinto improved on Gasly to move up into 9th. Ocon jumped up to 13th moments later, forcing Hulkenberg to find an improvement if he wanted to move through.
After Lawson moved up to 4th, Hulkenberg improved to 15th, enough to make it through. It sealed the fate of the Williams, Cadillac and Aston Martin drivers. Underlining Aston Martin's current struggles, Alonso point out he was happy with his lap, but that was still good enough only to beat his own teammate in the battle for the last row on the grid.
In Q2 it was Norris who drew the shortest straw and set the first time on the board. He was soon surpassed by both Red Bulls with a minute later both Ferraris again shaving off a couple tenths of Verstappen's time. The last one was Antonelli and he went fastest overall just after Piastri had taken top spot.
George Russell was also on track but aborted his lap after going too deep in Turn 3, only just avoiding the gravel trap and thereby ruining a change for a competitive lap at that time. He slowly returned to the pits to prepare for a later outing, one he kickstarted when Norris was the only other car on track, 15s ahead of him.
Norris' lap put him in third, followed by Russell improved to 4th after a simple "George, just drive" message from Toto Wolff. Neither Ferrari improved but as others did, Verstappen surely was anxious in the box as he opted not go out. Verstappen really was on the brink of elimination with Gasly missing out on 10th by just 4 hundredths.
The third part of qualifying is typically where the engines are turned up to the maximum and that worked wonders for Verstappen who posted a brilliant lap, beating Piastri, Leclerc and Norris. The two Mercedes looked on the backfoot in the early part of the lap but both had a great final sector, resulting in a provisional pole for Antonelli and Russell in second.
Lewis Hamilton did what Russell did on his first effort in Q2, going wide in T3 and aborting his lap.
Hadjar was the first one to make it out of the pitlane and prepare for his second effort, exiting the box and passing by the Ferrari box where Hamilton had to wait to join the fast lane.
Hamilton had a huge lap and was 2 tenths ahead of Antonelli's earlier effort but eventually only beating the Mercedes by 0.005s. Lecerc did better and improved on Hamilton by 0.099s. Next up was Verstappen, but he lost it in the penultimate corner, parking in the gravel trap. This triggered a yellow flag and forced Antonelli to back off.
Russell was further behind and still improved to take provisional pole. Replays showed a led board was flashing yellow when Russell passed it, and it's clear the Briton slowed down, but the question is whether it was enough to satisfy the stewards.
As the drivers did the interviews, the FIA reported "no further investigation", setting Russell's pole in stone. Antonelli on the other hand will be left disappointed, wondering if he should've tried the same approach. Instead, he will be looking at the rear of Leclerc's car from 4th on tomorrow's grid.
