Ka racetrack where Max Verstappen was more successful in Formula 1 than in Spielberg. The world champion won four times in Styria, on the slope named after his employer. The Red Bull driver has already raced to pole position there three times. Well, on Friday afternoon, a fourth time. He needed 1:04.391 minutes for the 4.318 kilometer lap. Nobody in Austria has been at the top more often than Verstappen. He couldn’t have gotten the party spirit of his tens of thousands of fans in the stands and on the campsites any better, everything is prepared for a lavish summer night in Oranje, not the first and probably not the last this weekend.
The runner-up in Friday’s hunt for times, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, was 0.048 seconds behind Verstappen. Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari finished third, 0.190 seconds back. The Scuderia thus confirmed the upward trend of the past few weeks. Lando Norris (McLaren) was fourth ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes). Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) from the Rhineland finished in a strong eighth place behind Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).
Strict race management
Before the start of qualifying, the scene had looked beggingly at the sky. At 27 degrees Celsius air temperature, dark clouds moved over the Mur Valley from the north-west. Lord give us the rain to spice up the weekend. The Lord, and Peter too, listened. It stayed dry. It was still turbulent.
The twenty pilots scrambled to set a good time, given the unclear weather conditions, before the possible downpour made further improvements impossible. Traffic was brisk and anyone who had completed a fast lap had to be careful not to get in the way of the others. Because it will be severely punished.
However, another problem was to determine the entire qualifying session: In the last two corners, nine and ten, the drivers kept swinging too hard to gain momentum for the fast lap. To do this, they let themselves be carried far outside, beyond the so-called track limits. The race director will penalize this offense by canceling the time achieved. The officials reported 47 violations, only one pilot was not guilty: Williams driver Logan Sargeant.
Verstappen scolds on the radio
The commissioners could hardly keep up with informing about canceled rounds and showed no mercy. “We don’t do it on purpose,” said Max Verstappen afterwards. “But at these speeds and in these fast corners, it’s not easy not to cross the line.” Red Bull Motorsport Director Helmut Marko agreed: “We have to think about something for next year. Either put in a gravel bed or higher curbs.”
For Nico Hülkenberg in the Haas, it didn’t look like he would survive the first round for a long time. The Rhinelander then improved decisively three seconds before the time ran out. Qualification was over for Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), Guanyu Zhou (Sauber), Logan Sargeant (Williams), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Nyck de Vries (Alpha Tauri). In the team-internal qualification duel with Kevin Magnussen, Hülkenberg increased it to 7:2.
In the second section the same picture. Lap times were repeatedly canceled because the drivers left the track. Max Verstappen got it again. “Honestly, the track limits are a joke,” scolded the world champion over the radio. “Ridiculous!” Sergio Pérez and Fernando Alonso also lost their best times in the meantime and came under pressure to have to do it again.
“Do I have one more try?”
In the case of Sergio Pérez in vain. Although he raced to second place for a short time, the race control reported again. time deleted. Three times in a row. “Really? Do I have one more try?” Pérez asked on the radio. “The time is up,” the box replied. The end for Pérez, who missed the top 10 qualifying for the fourth time in a row.
George Russell (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) also retired. After all: Nico Hülkenberg benefited from the string orgy and reached the last section in ninth place. And that despite the fact that his best lap had also been canceled. But the second best was still fast enough.
The main race on Sunday (3 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for Formula 1 and on Sky) covers 71 laps (306 kilometers). Before that, the sprint race takes place on Saturday. Last year Ferrari disrupted the Red Bull Festival in Spielberg: Charles Leclerc won the Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen. It was the last triumph for the Scuderia to date. It’s been 19 races now. Red Bull won 18 of them. It’s possible that the Reds will turn into a party crasher again in Austria of all places.
#Formula #Austria #pole #position #Max #Verstappen