Round 11/24: Review of the Austrian Grand Prix Sprint Race Qualifying

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Max Verstappen claimed pole position in the sprint race qualifying at the Red Bull Ring by nearly a tenth over his increasingly likely championship rival Lando Norris. Oscar Piastri finished P3 but was over two-tenths away from the top two while George Russell and Carlos Sainz completed the top five. Charles Leclerc couldn’t put in a time during SQ3 due to an anti stall issue which cost him a few seconds and ultimately couldn't reach the start line before the chequered flag was out.

Going into the sprint race qualifying, teams had to optimise their setup with only one practice session. In the practice, it was again Red Bull and McLaren who were the fastest even though Verstappen had an issue which brought out the red flag. A few changes to the structure of the race were made compared to last year which saw nearly 1200 incidents of track limit issues. Gravel traps were set up where increasing likelihood of track limits exceedance were observed last year. In the sprint qualifying, the teams were forced to use Mediums for SQ1 and SQ2 while softs were permitted for SQ3.

SQ1:

The session started with Lewis Hamilton losing his time for track limits followed by running into the gravel trap on his second lap which put him under risk for most of SQ1. Russell, Sainz and Norris were the initial pace setters with Verstappen pipping them after his run. At the end of the first runs, it was Fernando Alonso, Alexander Albon, Daniel Riccardo, Hamilton and Zhou Guanyu that were at risk of elimination.

The talking point though in SQ1 was the performance of Logan Sargeant. He continuously outperformed his teammate and in the end he out qualified Albon for the very first time in his career and moved into SQ2. It has to be seen whether it was a one-time thing or if Sargeant finally managed to get some pace out of the car. The Saubers of Valterri Bottas and Guanyu struggled throughout and were eliminated in Q1 along with Riccardo, Nico Hulkenberg and Albon.

SQ2:

The strategy here though appeared to be different between the teams. While Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes chose to do their run early in SQ2, others waited to do it at the fag end of the session. After the initial runs, it was Verstappen again who was leading the charts with Russell, Pisatri and Sainz following him. Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris and Perez finished next and all four of them had to do a second run in the end, possibly costing them a set of tires. Though, it is necessary to mention that once the threat of their exit disappeared all four abandoned their laps.

Kevin Magnussen put up a spirited lap to enter SQ3 but was denied ultimately with both Alpines holding their ground to outqualify Haas. Lance Stroll who recently renewed his contract for 2025 out-qualified his teammate as they finished in P12 and 13 respectively while Yuki Tsunoda and Sargeant finished P14 and P15.

SQ3:

With only 8 minutes, it was clear that the drivers would get only one run for a shot at pole position (sprint-qualifying). All the teams chose to go at the end of the session and this was the reason why Leclerc couldn’t finish his lap as he had barely any margin left before his engine turned off.

It was Piastri who set the pace initially beating both the Mercedes but was later overtaken by his teammate Norris who held pole position with an impressive sector 2. Verstappen though could eke out a gap in sector 1 and sector 3 finishing nine-hundredths ahead of Norris to claim pole position. Perez once again was nearly half a second away from his teammate finishing P7 while Hamilton finished in P5. The Alpines finished in P8 and P9 with Esteban Ocon heading his teammate.

POS DRIVER CONSTRUCTOR Q1 TIME Q2 TIME Q3 TIME
1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:05.690 1:05.186 1:04.686
2 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:05.786 1:05.561 1:04.779
3 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:06.081 1:05.379 1:04.987
4 George Russell MERCEDES 1:05.764 1:05.325 1:05.054
5 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:05.781 1:05.435 1:05.126
6 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:06.504 1:05.539 1:05.270
7 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 1:06.256 1:05.612 1:06.008
8 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:06.343 1:05.686 1:06.101
9 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 1:06.465 1:05.757 1:06.624
10 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:06.149 1:05.526 DNF
11 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 1:06.387 1:05.806
12 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:06.037 1:05.847
13 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 1:06.487 1:05.878
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB HONDA RBPT 1:06.557 1:05.960
15 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:06.518 DNF
16 Daniel Ricciardo RB HONDA RBPT 1:06.581
17 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 1:06.583
18 Valtteri Bottas KICK SAUBER FERRARI 1:06.725
19 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:06.754
18 Zhou Guyanu KICK SAUBER FERRARI 1:07.197

References

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  3. Timing Sheet Credits: www.formula1.com