SQ1: The spin didn’t stop Tsunoda, but the rally didn’t stop Hamilton
The work of the organizers was not in vain: the qualifying sprint for the Austrian Grand Prix did not turn into a parade of penalties. Still, two drivers failed enough on their first attempts to lose laps. A terrible lap, in his opinion, was a success for Hamilton, who first made a mistake in the first corner and then fell completely knackered on the gravel. Zhou made a slightly less spectacular mistake, but with the same result. Looking ahead, Lewis’ second round wasn’t ideal either; He even thought that he would not go further, but Peter Bonington pleasantly surprised his pupil.
Traditionally, the second attempts were decisive for the fight for the top 15. I was pleasantly surprised by Logan Sargent, who at least in the sprint classification was ahead of Alex Albon: the Thai only obtained 19th place. Nico Hulkenberg also had a weak Friday: 17th result, while Magnussen advanced quite confidently.
Daniel Ricciardo, who lost 24 thousandths of a second to Yuki Tsunoda, will start the race in a sprint from 16th position. The Japanese was not even bothered by a spectacular mistake on the second lap, when the RB spun at the penultimate corner. Well, the Kick-Sauber finished in full force: 18th for Bottas and 20th for Zhou. The qualifying form from the previous Grand Prix has disappeared somewhere.
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SQ2: middle peasants delegated to Alpin
The representatives of the four favorite teams, confident in their own abilities, left the second segment before the rest. In the end, Verstappen was the fastest in the “middle”, but Russell and Piastri were less than two tenths behind him. Max gained a decisive advantage over all competitors in the third sector, gaining by one to three tenths.
Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris and Perez went out for a second time just in case, but in the end they didn’t have to get nervous and fight desperately for a place in the top 10: the middle ones didn’t have enough pace to threaten Checo and Co. As a result, both free spots were filled by Alpin representatives and Magnussen ended up in the offensive eleventh position, losing half a tenth to Gasly. This is probably an objective balance of power.
Perhaps Stroll could challenge the French team, as even with a heavy skid in the last corner, Lance took 12th place, just a tenth behind Gasly. But the Canadian was ahead of his teammate Alonso even with such a mistake: the Spaniard will start the sprint in 13th place. As expected, the last in SQ2 were Tsunoda and Sargent; there were no miracles for RB and Williams.
SQ3: Leclerc’s strange failure
In the decisive segment, everyone, to begin with, demonstrated the imperfection of the rules: no one was going to go faster, so the spectators simply watched as everyone stood in the pits. And then suddenly everyone rushed forward: the Mercedes a little earlier, and behind them – everyone else. And here a strange problem arose for Leclerc: he suddenly turned to the right – as it turned out later, the Monegasque’s engine stopped working and he had to urgently restart it. And in the end, Charles did not have just a couple of seconds to make a fast lap – the Ferrari driver will start tenth.
As for those who successfully started the decisive attempt, it was not the first time that Verstappen and Norris faced each other in the fight for minipole. In the end, Max was faster, but only by 93 thousandths, which promises an interesting weekend! Piastri will start third, losing a couple of tenths to his teammate.
Russell has fourth place and Sainz and Hamilton will be on the third row of the starting grid; unfortunately, Ferrari cannot compete with the favourites on this track so far either. Even Mercedes is higher.
Perez had a disastrous result: he managed to lose a second and three tenths to Verstappen! In such a situation, the Mexican was lucky to finish at least seventh thanks to the Alpin drivers making attempts with old software sets. Ocon “gave” Gasly half a second and will start eighth, while Pierre will share the fifth row with Leclerc.
Saturday’s Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix sprint starts at 13:00 Moscow time.
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