Austrian Grand Prix could turn into a Max Verstappen festival at home Red Bull. The World Championship leader dominated the weekend’s only free practice sessions, confirming his dominance by taking his fourth straight pole position in the afternoon and sixth so far this season. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz endorsed nice feelings from canada and they will accompany the Dutchman to the starting line on Sunday, while Fernando Alonso is overtaken by teammate Stroll for the first time in qualifying and will drop to seventh place in the race.
Q1: Red Bull scares at home
A track trip starring Valteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) interrupted the session three minutes later with a red flag. Carlos Sainz received an entry penalty after two laps were voided for crossing track limits. As the action resumed, the Madrid man had to resort to a new softs game to break through the hurdle and qualify for Q2.
As in the weekend’s only free session, Verstappen started ahead of the Ferraris. Sainz and Leclerc. Preferring to save a set of soft tires for the two divisions in Austria this morning, Alonso remained in the provisional top five enough to avoid the danger zone.
The premiere ended with two Red Bulls. Verstappen and Perez Ahead, ahead of Sainz, his 1’05″655 lap was enough for Alonso to move up to seventh place. They were eliminated. Tsunoda, Zhou, Sergeant, Magnussen and De Vries.
Q2: The ‘prank’ of part boundaries
In a highly conditioned classification with course limits and strict decisions of the stewards, Verstappen, Perez, Leclerc and Stroll, among the fastest, they saw their best laps cancelled. “This seems like a joke,” the enraged World Cup leader complained.
Aston Martin also did not have this additional problem under the sprint format, with a special case of tire strategy in doubles and racing and a grand prix. The situation is chaotic, brought many elite drivers such as Russell, Stroll or Pérez to the brink of elimination. The Mexican tried to salvage the situation with a fantastic lap that placed him second to just 39 thousandths of the fastest Verstappen (1.04,951), but they swept him away as well.
It’s a blow for Checo, who has been highly questioned by his performance decline in recent races and has been out of Q3 for the fourth consecutive year. ‘Track borders’ also condemned Russell, Ocon, Piastri and Bottas.
Q3: mast
The ninth pole fight of the season would be decided between two Ferraris and two Aston Martins. Verstappen, Norris, Hamilton, Gasly, Hulkenberg and Albon. The candidates set out with a conservative attitude on their first try. It was all about providing a tour within limits. Max finished the starting lap again with the fastest time and temporary pole position (1.04.503). Leclerc and Sainz were two-tenths behind the Red Bull leader, and Alonso finished sixth on his first attempt.
One ‘bullet’ remained in the chamber and everyone tried to displace Verstappen. Leclerc tried to confuse him by delaying his exit to the track to avoid traffic. Max played tenth (1.03391) and Leclerc is only 48 thousand breaths away. Sainz finished third and Alonso had to take seventh place, which greatly complicated his expectations for Sunday.
Once the starting grid for the main race has been defined, Saturday will be split into sprints with only qualifying (12:00 PM) and the short race (4:30 PM), deducting eight points for the winner and one point for the winner. until the postings below are eighth. This sprint weekend program throughout the year Belgium, Qatar, the United States and Brazil.