Austrian GP: Max on Pole, again
Max manages to get a pole again at the Austrian GP, with Lando P2 and Checo P3. The Mercedes boys coming in at P4 and P5.
Although Max did not look so happy with his final lap in Q3, he managed to put his car on the Pole position. This is his second Pole back to back at the Austrian GP. The Red Bull car looks really strong and a favorite to win the race tomorrow. His team-mate Sergio Perez was not bad either, coming in at P3. Checo did struggle in all the practice sessions, barely putting in the good laps. But he recovered slowly and performed superbly when it mattered.
Fantastic Lando
If there is any person other than Max who is at the top of his game then it has to be Lando. He extracted everything that was possible from that McLaren MCL35 and was almost ahead of Max the entire lap but for the understeer at the last corner, narrowly missing out on the Pole position with just 4 hundreths of a second. This P2 becomes even more phenomenal given that his 7-time race winner team mate Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t even get into Q3 and will be starting P13. Let’s hope that Lando has the race pace too tomorrow as he will be starting from the front row of the Austrian GP.
Mercedes lacking the punch
From the practice sessions it seemed that Mercedes have clawed back some performance as compared to last week. They were topping the charts in the practice sessions and looked set to occupy the front rows of the Austrian GP. However things did not turn out this way. The seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, who just extended his contract with Mercedes for two more years, just managed to get P4. Even Valtteri Bottas who needs to show his performance to keep his Mercedes seat managed only P5. Mercedes would really be hoping for much better race pace if they want to have any chance of putting a strong fight to Red Bull.
Alpha Tauri always showed potential but they couldn’t convert it into strong positions, especially the rookie Yuki Tsunoda. This was not the case today as both the car got in Q3, with Gasly starting P6 and Tsunoda P7 tomorrow. Aston Martin also managed to put both their cars in Q3, Seb is P8 and Lance P10.
Mr. Saturday finally gets in Q3
It was long time coming and today it finally happened. George Russell got his Williams in Q3 for the first time, with the slimmest of margin. He must be ecstatic with such a wonderful performance and hoping to get some points for Williams, at last.
Ferrari boys looked a bit lacklustre. They were doing good in the practice sessions but things just didn’t click in the Quali. Carlos will be starting P11 and Charles P12 tomorrow.
Disappointing results for the French team Alpine. Yet another Q1 exit for Ocon, after getting a multi-year contract extension. He must be very disappointed. Alonso looked in sublime touch, even managing P3 in the Q1 session. However his Q2 lap was hindered by a slow moving Aston Martin of Vettel. He will be starting P14 tomorrow and there is chance that Seb might get some penalty.
So we have a very interesting Austrian GP lined up tomorrow. Max looks favorite but Mercedes will try everything possible to get as many points as possible.
