Austria GP Qualifying Report

With a lap taking just over a minute to complete, this would be a blink-and-you-miss-it Qualifying; meaning that tiny errors cost the driver much more than usual.   Not only that but the higher altitude in the mountains meant that engines were not running as well.

The traffic was not as much of a problem as expected in the first Qualifying session.  Antonelli was the quickest with his team mate down in fourth and his championship rival Hamilton in third.  At the bottom they were out in the ark, two by two: Sainz and Albon, Perez and Bottas, Alonso and Stroll.

Antonelli was again quickest in the second session, separated from Russell by the two McLarens.  Verstappen only went out on one run and had to watch to see if anyone from the midfield would beat his time: it was good enough for tenth.  Out went Gasly, Bortoleto, Bearman, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Colapinto.

In the third and final session, Verstappen was nearly quick enough as they put in their banker laps but Antonelli was quickest with Russell alongside him.  Hamilton went wide and off the track and failed to set a lap time.  There was a lot of boring talk about tires.  With forty seconds to go, the final laps were being set down.  Hamilton went, even visually, very quick to take pole then his team mate Leclerc snatched it from him.  Verstappen was carrying too much speed into the final corner, pushing hard and went off quickly through the gravel to speed into the tyre wall.  Russell was behind him and managed to take pole and there was a lot of discussion about when he passed a single or double Yellow Flag.  This potential infringement would mean that his pole position could be taken away.  It would be a close call but he would keep it even if Ferrari had been celebrating a front row lock out.   Russell was quick to point out that Wolff had already told him that he had made a big lift on the power and that would be satisfactory.  The top ten were Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton, Antonelli (who had to abort his lap for the Yellow Flags), Verstappen, Norris, Piastri, Hadjar, Lawson and Linblad.

There would be many variables in the race: reliability, especially from the Mercedes engines, the hot temperature, Norris pointed out that there would be a lot of pit stops, differing abilities at race starts, smoke bombs from the Orange Army...