With the battle for pole position looking close between Mercedes and Ferrari, qualifying was shaping up to be interesting for the Austrian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton topping FP1 and FP2 while Sebastian Vettel was fastest in FP3.
Valtteri Bottas claims pole position for Austrian Grand Prix
Qualifying 1
In the first session of qualifying, Lewis Hamilton set the pace with a 1:05.064 on the ultrasoft tyre, just under one tenth of a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen who was his nearest challenger. In the first session of qualifying, five drivers were eliminated, meaning that they will not progress to Q2. Jolyon Palmer was one such driver, who again failed to progress to Q2, only managing 16th place, meaning that he has been out qualified by Nico Hulkenberg for the ninth race in succession. It was also a difficult session for Williams, with Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll being both being knocked out of Q1 having struggled all weekend, only managing 17th and 18th. The Sauber drivers rounded out Q1, with Marcus Ericsson out qualifying Pascal Wehrlein for 19th place, meaning that the pair will fill out the final row of the grid for the race on Sunday.
Qualifying 2
In the second session of qualifying, Valtteri Bottas set the pace with a 1:04.316 ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton set his best time on the supersoft tyre, which means that he will start the race on the slower but more durable compound. Another five drivers were eliminated from the second part of qualifying and Nico Hulkenberg narrowly missed out on a Q3 appearance by 0.047 seconds, leaving him in 11th place. Next up were the McLaren pair of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne who will line up in 12th and 13th, showing some signs of improvement for McLaren. Daniil Kvyat qualified in 14th place, failing to get both Toro Rossos into Q3. Kevin Magnussen rounded out the session in 15th place and didn’t set a lap after picking up terminal suspension damage in Q1.
Qualifying 3
Going into the final part of qualifying, Valtteri Bottas was looking like the driver to beat after setting the pace in Q2. After the first set of runs in Q3, Bottas was fastest and quickly became the driver to beat while Vettel followed him close behind in second. With a few minutes remaining, the final ten drivers went out to put in their bid to claim pole position. In the closing stages however, the yellow flags waved in the second sector for Romain Grosjean, meaning that no one could improve on their previous lap times. This left Bottas on pole, marking the second of his career while Sebastian Vettel claimed another front row start for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton qualified in third place and through his five-place grid penalty, will start the Austrian Grand Prix in eighth place. This promotes Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo to the second row of the grid after the pair qualified in fourth and fifth. Max Verstappen qualified in sixth place for Red Bull and will be promoted to fifth place and will start alongside Romain Grosjean who was seventh fastest but will start in sixth. Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon were next, qualifying in eighth and ninth. Carlos Sainz Jr rounded out the top ten for Toro Rosso.
With Bottas starting from pole and Sebastian Vettel starting alongside him, the Austrian Grand Prix is set to be an exciting battle for the win, especially with Lewis Hamilton starting down in eighth place. Hamilton will be starting the race on the supersoft tyre while those round him will start on the ultrasoft, meaning that the triple world champion will be on a different strategy to the rest of the top ten starters, allowing him to use the faster rubber at the end of the race similar to what Mercedes did at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Qualifying results for the Austrian Grand Prix:
- Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 1:04.251
- Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:04.293
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:04.424
- Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:04.779
- Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, 1:04.896
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1:04.983
- Romain Grosjean, Haas F1, 1:05.480
- Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:05.605
- Esteban Ocon, Force India, 1:05.674
- Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1:05.726
- Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 1:05.597
- Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:05.602
- Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:05.741
- Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:05.884
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1, No time
- Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:06.345
- Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:06.534
- Lance Stroll, Williams, 1:06.608
- Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:06.857
- Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, 1:07.011
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