Let’s see who was able to pull out a great lap in Friday Qualifying to set themselves up for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Q1
In Qualifying 1; Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen, and Nyck de Vries were the five slowest drivers. Yuki Tsunoda wasn’t quite able to extract enough time out of his Alpha Tauri to get it into Q2 whilst Zhou Guanyu once felt just short of a spot in the second round of Qualifying. Logan Sargeant continues to struggle to get near the pace of his Williams teammate whilst Kevin Magnussen is really underperforming right now. Nyck de Vries was slowest in Qualifying and that’s only going to pile more pressure on him going forward. Max Verstappen topped Q1 by just under a tenth to teammate Sergio Perez.
Q2
In Qualifying 2; George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Oscar Piastri, Valtteri Bottas, and Sergio Perez all failed to make it into the top 10 shootout. Even though it was super tight, George Russell cannot be being knocked out in Q2, particularly after his crash in Canada. Esteban Ocon under-delivered in his Alpine whilst Oscar Piastri could only manage 13th in his weaker McLaren (compared to his teammate). Valtteri Bottas did a solid job to get his Alfa Romeo up in P14 whilst Sergio Perez suffered 3 track limit violations which saw the Mexican miss out on Q3 for the 4th consecutive race. This simply isn’t good enough anymore. Max Verstappen once again topped Q2.
Q3
In Qualifying 3; Max Verstappen’s 1:04.391 was good enough to take his 4th consecutive Pole position. Max once again looked in control and he’ll look to continue this for the rest of the weekend. Charles Leclerc pulled out an excellent lap to get within 48 thousandths of Verstappen whilst Carlos Sainz will start 3rd for the main race. Lando Norris was another star of Qualifying as he managed to get his McLaren into a sensational P4 whilst Lewis Hamilton could only manage 5th for Mercedes. Lance Stroll did a good job to out-qualify his teammate Fernando Alonso who will be disappointed to only start 7th whilst Nico Hulkenberg had a fantastic session to get his Haas car into 8th place. Pierre Gasly will be satisfied yet slightly disappointed with 9th whilst Alex Albon did another good job to get his Williams inside the top 10.
Starting Grid for the Austrian Grand Prix and my Qualifying Grades
Max Verstappen: 10
Charles Leclerc: 10
Carlos Sainz: 9
Lando Norris: 10
Lewis Hamilton: 7
Lance Stroll: 7
Fernando Alonso: 5
Nico Hulkenberg: 10
Pierre Gasly: 7
Alex Albon: 8
George Russell: 3
Esteban Ocon: 4
Oscar Piastri: 3
Valtteri Bottas: 5
Sergio Perez: 2
Yuki Tsunoda: 3
Zhou Guanyu: 2
Logan Sargeant: 2
Kevin Magnussen: 1
Nyck de Vries: 1
My Predictions for the Austrian Sprint Shootout
Max Verstappen
Charles Leclerc
Lando Norris
Carlos Sainz
Lewis Hamilton
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