F1 qualifying Austria: Verstappen pole at the Mercedes crash festival!
(Motorsport-Total.com) – Max Verstappen secured pole position for Saturday’s F1 sprint at Red Bull’s home Grand Prix in Austria. In front of an impressive backdrop of tens of thousands of orange-clad compatriots, the Dutchman delivered a sovereign performance and relegated the Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to their places.
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Max Verstappen took pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix
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For Mercedes, however, qualifying turns out to be a fiasco. Lewis Hamilton took off first, followed a few minutes later by George Russell. Russell also got himself an FIA investigation afterwards.
Sergio Perez (Red Bull) was fourth, followed by Russell, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Kevin Magnussen, Mick Schumacher (both Haas), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Hamilton.
On the subject:
result qualification
F1 live ticker: reactions to qualifying
F1 live stream: qualifying analysis
Had Verstappen’s pole position become apparent?
Yes. He had set the best time in the only free practice session. The Red Bull Ring has a “magical effect,” said Helmut Marko before qualifying. In an interview with ‘Sky’ he said: “We’ve never had such a training session. Max drove out and was immediately the fastest. The engineer asked him if he wanted to change anything. ‘No, everything is fine!'”
In addition, Verstappen was “very good” both on a fast lap and in race trim. The best sign for the F1 sprint on Saturday.
Was war the cause of Hamilton’s crash?
The Mercedes driver flew off in turn 7 a good five minutes before the end of Q3. Hamilton broke the rear when turning in, he had to countersteer and could no longer avoid slipping. When he hit the barriers, the right side of his car in particular was badly damaged.
The cause was quickly clarified, because Hamilton took the crash on his cap: “Damn! I’m so sorry, guys, that I damaged the car.” Particularly annoying: according to his race engineer Peter Bonnington, second or third place would have been possible based on her performance.
Hamilton was unhurt despite not getting out of the car for a relatively long time. His accident was celebrated with thunderous cheers from tens of thousands of Verstappen fans in the stands.
Hamilton had already drawn Leclerc’s anger. He may have been stopped by Hamilton and said on the pit radio: “There’s no chance that Lewis won’t be penalized!” ‘ORF’ expert Alexander Wurz is surprised: “I don’t understand why Leclerc is so upset about it. I think Lewis has made a good run for it.”
How was Russell?
The session had only just started and Russell was in fifth place when the second Mercedes went off in the finish corner. Russell’s pit radio then had to be completely beeped because it was obviously not entirely suitable for minors.
But it got worse: While the break was on, an investigation was launched against Russell for entering the track without permission. After his crash, the Brit marched across the track to the pit lane without having clarified this with a marshal beforehand.
This is necessary even if there is no longer a Formula 1 car on the track. Afterwards, safety or medical cars could also be on the road, or other vehicles. It will probably cost Russell a few thousand dollars in fines.
How did it go for Mick Schumacher?
Haas has been strong on many occasions in Austria, and 2022 seems to be no exception. Kevin Magnussen entered Q3 in seventh place and Schumacher in tenth place. However, the German only had a 0.009 second buffer on Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri).
In Q3, Schumacher was the only driver to only do one fast lap. Before the last run he was in tenth place. With the last lap he moved up to P8, a good tenth of a second behind Magnussen.
Why were so many lap times canceled?
Especially in Q1, rows of drivers drove over the track limits in turn 10. Among other things, Verstappen and Sainz were canceled a round. Both were then able to improve and easily move into Q2. Curve 10 o’clock Red Bull Ring has been a neuralgic point for many years with regard to track limits.
Incidentally, Perez could face an aftermath due to a track limit violation in Q2. The race stewards reported a possible violation, but this will only be clarified after qualifying. Perez was initially allowed to contest Q3 as normal.
Were there any negative surprises in Q1?
Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) was eliminated this time after the first segment, even in the dry. The German was 20th and last because his fastest time was scrapped – half a second off the Q2 cut even on the short Red Bull Ring. Even without the deleted time (1:06.652 minutes) it would just not have been enough for Q2, but only for P17.
His teammate Lance Stroll was 17th. “It’s disappointing that nothing is progressing at Aston Martin,” Wurz.
Another surprise was Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) in P16. He just missed P15 by 0.024 seconds. Also out: Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), a week after his crash at Silverstone, in 18th place, and Nicholas Latifi (Williams) in 19th place.
Why was qualifying already on Friday?
In 2022, Formula 1 will have sprint races on Saturdays over three weekends. In Imola, Spielberg and Sao Paulo. On those weekends, qualifying takes place on Friday and defines the starting grid for the sprint. However, any grid penalties that have already been determined will not be counted towards the Saturday race, but only towards the Sunday race.