The Brazilian surprised us all achieving the pole in the dying seconds of Q3. Unexpectedly, Williams took the first row with Bottas being second and ended the dominance of Mercedes in qualifying.

Surprise jumped at the Red Bull Ring. Felipe Massa surprised and took the fought and exciting pole position of Grand Prix of Austria in the dying seconds of Q3, his first pole since Brazil 2008. The Brazilian will be joined on the front row by his teammate Valtteri Bottas, thus closing the first row of Williams. The last time two drivers of the Grove team started from the first two places was in the German Grand Prix in 2003.
As throughout the weekend, turn eight was one of the biggest obstacles to the drivers as they were found out numerous times to get out the car white-line, in addition to heavy traffic, especially in Q1. Lewis Hamilton led the session with a time of 1:09.514, followed by Daniil Kvyat-with-supersoft tyres, a tenth and a half behind. Nico Rosberg was third. With no surprises were deleted Sauber, Marussia and Caterham. Chilton, since the penalty of three positions by the incident Bianchi in Canada, will start from the last position.
In Q2 all drivers used the supersoft compound. Unlike Q1, it was remarkable elimination of the reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel. A removal is even more painful when it is in the home circuit. On the other hand, his teammate Daniel Ricciardo did not miss the cut. Rosberg was fastest, with a time of 1:08.974 – followed by Hamilton and Bottas. Alongside Vettel, Pérez was deleted too -also penalized three positions for his touch with Massa in Canada-, Button, Maldonado, who beat Grosjean for the first time so far this season, Vergne and Grosjean.
The fight for pole was full of excitement and drama. Rosberg was not able to set a fast time on his first attempt and he was overtaken by Bottas in the first position. Hamilton, meanwhile, went long at turn eight and his time was eliminated. On his second attempt, Rosberg could not improve Bottas time. Things were worse for Hamilton, who made a mistake on his flying lap and suffered a spin. When nobody expected, Massa scored a time of 1:08.759, the fastest of the weekend and beating the 2003 record. Bottas fell to just 87 milliseconds. Rosberg was third and Alonso achieved a positive fourth. Hamilton will start from ninth.
Results:

 

Pos. Car Driver Team Nation Laps Time
1 19 Felipe Massa Williams – Mercedes BRA 19 1:8,759
2 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams – Mercedes FIN 19 1:8,846
3 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GER 17 1:8,944
4 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari SPA 25 1:9,285
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing – Renault AUS 22 1:9,466
6 20 Kevin Magnussen R McLaren – Mercedes DAN 29 1:9,515
7 26 Daniil Kvyat R Toro Rosso – Renault RUS 21 1:9,619
8 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari FIN 23 1:10,795
9 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes GBR 15 No Time
10 27 Nico Hülkenberg Force India – Mercedes GER 23 No Time
11 11 Sergio Pérez Force India – Mercedes MEX 18 1:9,754
12 22 Jenson Button McLaren – Mercedes GBR 22 1:9,78
13 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing – Renault GER 15 1:9,801
14 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus – Renault VEN 18 1:9,939
15 25 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso – Renault FRA 19 1:10,073
16 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus – Renault FRA 21 1:10,642
17 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber – Ferrari GER 10 1:10,825
18 21 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber – Ferrari MEX 10 1:11,349
19 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia –  Ferrari FRA 9 1:11,412
20 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham – Renault JAP 10 1:11,673
21 4 Max Chilton Marussia –  Ferrari GBR 10 1:11,775
22 9 Marcus Ericsson R Caterham – Renault SWE 11 1:12,673

 

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