The Friday in F1 Austrian GP was straightforward and yet tricky with track limits playing a good role in deciding the Sunday’s grid.
The sprint weekend kicked-off on a debatable note with track limits playing center stage in F1 Austrian GP qualifying on Friday. As many as 47 laps were deleted where the likes of Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Oscar Piastri were knocked out in Q2 due to lap deletions.
This was the fourth straight F1 grand prix where Perez failed to make it in Q3, as Mercedes’ George Russell was another who didn’t make it in the Top 10 after he was unable to set a good lap. The Brit struggled in the lone practice unlike Lewis Hamilton.
Even Hamilton wasn’t too pleased but was happy with the fifth place finish. It was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen again on top but not before his lap cancellations in Q1 and Q2. He only got the F1 pole by 0.048s against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz looked decent in F1 qualifying with no major trouble in terms of lap deletions. They beat Aston Martin and Mercedes both, where the former saw Lance Stroll finish ahead of Fernando Alonso in sixth and seventh.
Verstappen: “I think it was good enough, but around here to get the perfect lap together it’s not that easy. And plus today, I think, it was very difficult with the track limits as well. You leave a little bit of margin, I think, especially for me in the last sector. But yeah, the lap was fine. It’s just tricky. You have the high-speed corners and the very low-speed corners, and sometimes the balance can be… You want bit more front or whatever for the low-speed, less for the high-speed, it’s difficult to always get that right. But yeah, happy of course to be first. I mean, around here, short lap, the margins are very small, we always see that, but to be ahead is good for us. also there I was leaving margin, just I ran out of road. I was not on the limit, but sometimes when you hit the compression wrong, you lose the lap time apparently. For me, it was still a very close call. But I mean, of course in Q3, you’re going faster than in Q2, but it’s just finding your margins. But definitely in Q3 I was a bit more aware of where to put the car not to risk, you know, being looked into.”
Leclerc: “There’s always something more. I think Turn 3 was not ideal. Turn 1 had quite a bit of snaps. We tried to add a bit more front wing for the last run in Q3 and it probably was a tiny bit too much. But at the end it’s part of the game. Very, very close to pole position, which is a good sign. But we all know that our weakness is the race. So we are waiting for the race to try and see if we confirm the positive signs that we’ve seen in Montréal. And as I said earlier, the team has done a great job by putting so much effort into bringing the upgrades earlier than what was planned. And that helped us to have a good feeling with the car today.
“From last year’s to this, I mean, we have two very different cars since last year, and even though on the Sunday they were starting to be signs at that point of the season that Red Bull was a little bit stronger, I think the difference was much smaller than what it has been this year. This year it’s to a much bigger extent. So I would be very surprised if we are doing the same race as last year. I hope so, and will do absolutely everything for this, but I will be very surprised if we’ve got as good of a pace as last year. But again, we don’t know. I think that’s where we need to confirm the upgrades that we’ve put on the car, whether we’ve gained the performance that we expected in the race, but there’s definitely not the amount of lap time that was for the first part of the season in the race in that upgrade yet.”
Sainz: “Feeling comfortable and feeling good out there today since FP1, which is a good sign, because it looks like we’re getting a bit into a better rhythm as the season progresses. Yeah. Good Qualifying, good lap. Obviously, you can always find a bit more lap time when you look back at it but yeah, I think we can be proud as a team with the progress we’re making. As Charles said, the team did a tremendous effort to bring an upgrade package to this race when it was not meant to be and probably it has helped us to be here today. So thank you for that. And now we will have to wait to the race to see how much real progress we’ve done, because we know that is where our struggles happen. A short stint on the Sprint race is still a pretty long stint for the tyres that we might use.
“Because we are talking about 20-something laps, which is more or less the stint length that you do on a normal race, so deg, race pace still plays a massive part in that. It is true that last year we managed to put Max under pressure and beat him eventually. But it’s a different year, a different car. They’ve become a lot stronger since then. Actually, I think Austria last year was their only, or the last weak race let’s say, if we put it that way. Since then they’ve been amazing in the race. It will be extremely difficult to fight them. But anything can happen, like always in F1. You never know.”
Perez: “We were a bit confused, but then once I got the feedback that it was on the way into Turn 10, it was all clear and I was on a good lap, but then all of a sudden on my final lap I found, I think, Albon. I just went straight, I could not stop. I think I lost a tenth or a bit more than that, just by going straight, but the stewards wouldn’t consider that I was blocked. There’s so many things I can control, and unfortunately this one you’re closing a good lap and then all of a sudden you are blocked and you have a penalty.”
Russell: “We weren’t quick enough today and from the first laps in the practice session I didn’t have the best feel of the car. Obviously, it’s challenging going into a sprint race weekend like this, as you just don’t have the time to make necessary changes. We’ll see what we can do overnight going into tomorrow and how we can improve ahead of the sprint qualifying. P11 is clearly not the best starting position for Sunday, but we’ve had some good results starting from further down the field this year so I’m hopeful we can fight our way back during the race.”
Alonso: “I feel good after that qualifying session. It’s always intense qualifying here where the lap times are so close. If you look at the timing board throughout the three sessions, there are two or three tenths between a number of cars. Track limits were tight, and I had a couple of laps deleted as I was trying to really commit to those fast corners, but it was the same for everyone and something we’re used to around this circuit. We had one lap time deleted in Q2, which forced us to put an extra set of tyres on the car to progress. It then meant we only had one chance on new tyres in Q3, which wasn’t ideal. Sixth and seventh are strong starting positions for us. I think it’ll be interesting and exciting with the weather as there is a chance of rain tomorrow and maybe dry conditions on Sunday. The car feels good, so I’m optimistic heading into the rest of the weekend.”
The Top 10 also had McLaren’s Lando Norris, who in fact ended up fourth ahead of both Mercedes and Aston Martin F1 cars. The upgrades coupled with suitable circuit aided the Brit, where teammate Piastri lost his Top 10 place to track limits.
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg too made it in the Top 10 along with Williams’ Alexander Albon, both of whose teammates Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant were knocked out in Q1. The Dane was seemingly impeded by Verstappen, but the stewards ruled it out.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly took it cautiously to be in the Top 10 where teammate Ocon lost his Q3 lap to be out in Q2. Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas made it in Q2 despite spinning early on after he lost the rear when he found himself close behind a Red Bull F1 car.
His teammate Zhou Guanyu was knocked out in Q1 along with both the AlphaTauri F1 cars, where Yuki Tsunoda reckoned he had a bit more to be in Q2 after losing out by just the 0.021s margin. Teammate Nyck de Vries didn’t think Q2 was possible.
Norris: “I really am delighted, to be honest, it’s just I messed up my lap a bit. I should have had Carlos, but it’s just a should have. I’m still very happy, P4 is still very good for us, especially for a main quali. It was good fun, and tricky, because basically every single corner you can get a track limits violation. Every corner you want to push more, but you have to be so careful at the same time. But the car has been working very well, so I have to say a big thanks to the team for getting all the new bits here, because we wouldn’t be P4 if we didn’t have that. I’m super happy and it’s a good one for the team. As soon as we put the car down, things were working I think as they were meant to be, which is always a good sign. I guess as a driver if you don’t put the perfect lap together when it could have been something that little bit more, which would be a P3, you just wish you could put it together, but I’m very happy.
“I think for such limited running this morning, to understand the car, I think we did a good job with that. I wouldn’t say we were able to maybe maximise everything. I think we anticipated that, but at the same time I’m taking the P4 every day, so a good day for us. Especially for us, normally even if we’re slow in the dry we can be alright in the wet, too. I don’t mind. Obviously we’re performing well here. In quali generally we’re better than the race, so I don’t really know what to expect for tomorrow, or for Sunday, let’s say. But it depends on the weather; I’m praying probably for some rain, but if it’s dry too I don’t mind, I’m just maybe not quite as confident.”
Albon: “I’m feeling comfortable about the result we delivered today in qualifying, as despite the track limits, we would’ve finished P10 regardless. We got through to Q3 because of a few other drivers suffering from track limits, so P10 was definitely the best we could do. The upgrades are working but I think we had a bit more raw pace in Canada than we do here. We have some quick cars in front and behind us on Sunday, so let’s see how we go.”
Ocon: “It’s not been an easy day for us as we didn’t reach Q3, which is the minimum aim for each qualifying session. We were in the top ten in Q2, but our lap was deleted for track limits, which we saw many times this afternoon up and down the grid. The margins are very small here, and we really have to push the limits especially at the final two corners as that’s where time is to gain. It is disappointing, but I am confident we can recover some places in Sunday’s race from twelfth on the grid. We will review today but now our focus turns to the Sprint Day tomorrow with another Qualifying session before the Sprint Race. There is an opportunity to score points tomorrow and that is our target.”
Bottas: “Of course, we were targeting something more than Q2, but on the positive, we have seen how margins are very small once again. Overall, it’s been a relatively normal qualifying session, although I spun at the start of Q1: I got too close to a Red Bull who didn’t see me, and I lost the back end. It wasn’t ideal, but I thankfully managed to get back underway with the session. We are still lacking a bit of performance on the single lap, and this is what we’ll be putting our focus on overnight. Tomorrow is a new day, and Sunday as well: there are still lots of opportunities for us to improve. Our target, as always, is to get into the points, and that’s what we’ll be working towards.”
Magnussen: “It’s all so tight at the moment. I had traffic with Verstappen at Turn 1 on the first lap of my final run, but that lap was deleted for track limits, it wouldn’t have counted anyway. Then on my second attempt I had a downshift fault, it wouldn’t downshift, so it cost me a little bit of time at Turn 3 as I was in the wrong gear. When it’s this tight, in fact it’s unbelievably tight – a little issue like that is very costly. Normally you can get away with something like this, but we were just on the wrong end of it today.”
Tsunoda: “I’m very frustrated because I couldn’t maximise our performance today due to traffic. The second push was really good, Q2 was possible today, and obviously, the pack is still tight, so it’s a shame, but it is what it is. Tomorrow seems different compared to today, with potential rain forecasted, so we have to be prepared, and I will put my full effort into Sprint qualifying.”
Here’s how F1 Austrian GP qualifying panned out
