Valtteri Bottas succeeded in claiming pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix for the second year on succession.
He was 0.019s ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in the final round of qualifying on Saturday afternoon, meaning that tomorrow's race will see an all-Mercedes front row line-up.
Best of the rest were the two Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, with local favourite Max Verstappen fifth ahead of Haas' Romain Grosjean.
Current man of the moment Charles Leclerc was only 13th fastest after qualifying, and he will get a five place demotion on tomorrow's grid because of a gearbox change following a failure at the end of FP3.
Austrian Grand Prix - Qualifying
| Pos | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:04.175s | 1:03.756s | 1:03.130s |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:04.080s | 1:03.577s | 1:03.149s |
| 3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:04.347s | 1:03.544s | 1:03.464s |
| 4 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:04.234s | 1:03.975s | 1:03.660s |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:04.273s | 1:04.001s | 1:03.840s |
| 6 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:04.242s | 1:04.059s | 1:03.892s |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:04.723s | 1:04.403s | 1:03.996s |
| 8 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:04.460s | 1:04.291s | 1:04.051s |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:04.948s | 1:04.561s | 1:04.725s |
| 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:04.864s | 1:04.676s | 1:05.019s |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:05.148s | 1:04.845s | |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:05.011s | 1:04.874s | |
| 13 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1:04.967s | 1:04.979s | |
| 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:04.965s | 1:05.058s | |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:05.264s | 1:05.286s | |
| 16 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:05.271s | ||
| 17 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:05.279s | ||
| 18 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:05.322s | ||
| 19 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:05.366s | ||
| 20 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:05.479s |
Blue skies and friendly white clouds over the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg belied the forecast of a 40 per cent chance of showers during the hour of qualifying. Air temperature of 25C made it a pleasant day at the race track for the crowd, many of whom were dressed in bright orange in support of the star of the day, Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Q1: Mercedes takes charge as Perez fails to make the cut
Brendon Hartley's Toro Rosso was ready and waiting on ultrasofts to head out on track when the light at the end of pit lane went green. He was followed out by the two Saubers, both Williams and a pair of Force India cars, all of whom still had some work to do if they were to feature in the later stages.
Sergey Sirotkin took the early honours with a 1:05.598s ahead of his Williams team mate Lance Stroll. Esteban Ocon was briefly fastest with a 1:05.567s before the combined forces of Mercedes and Ferrari stormed to the top, Lewis Hamilton's 1:04.294s putting him ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. Bottas' follow-up lap was good enough to put him on top by 0.119s.
Verstappen and his team mate Daniel Ricciardo were among the last drivers to set off. Showing no signs of any ill-effects from his electrical issue at the end of FP3, the Dutch driver's maiden effort was good enough to put him into fourth ahead of Raikkonen, while Ricciardo was only eighth behind Haas team mates Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.
Further improvements at the top saw Hamilton reclaim the advantage on 1:04.080s, just under a tenth faster than Bottas. Raikkonen and Verstappen improved to third and fourth, pushing Vettel down to fifth. All were safely through to the second round and had nothing left to prove, although Grosjean took the opportunity to improve to fourth place ahead of Verstappen.
Meanwhile attention turned to the five slowest cars. Both McLarens were struggling to find any pace but Alonso finally did enough to get out of danger. Stoffel Vandoone also found temporary safety, thereby relegating Sirotkin and Hartley into the drop zone alongside Stroll and Sauber's Marcus Ericsson. The biggest surprise was the sight of Sergio Perez' name at the bottom of the timesheets; the Force India did find some extra speed on its final run but it was only good enough for 16th.
A final effort after the chequered flag saw Stroll improve to 15th, dropping Vandoorne back into the bottom five. A messy final lap for Charles Leclerc brought out local yellows at turn 4 which prevented any hope of improvements for Sirotkin and Vandoorne, sealing their fate along with Perez, Hartley and Ericsson.
Q2: Vettel fastest as Mercedes stick to supersofts
Bottas and Hamilton were quick to get to work in Q2, both Mercedes on supersoft tyres with an eye to tomorrow's race strategy. Hamilton punched in a time of 1:03.577s despite complaining of vibration on the front tyres while Bottas was almost two tenths back. Meanwhile Ferrari were out on the nominally faster ultrasoft tyres but could only manage third and fourth fastest which put them ahead of the two Haas cars.
Red Bull once again held back for a few minutes before emerging, opting to follow the Silver Arrows on supersofts. Verstappen's lap was good enough for fifth place albeit by taking some risks by clouting the kerbs, but it was a poor effort for Ricciardo who found himself out of the top ten and battling to survive the next cut-off. The Australian's next effort was better, but still only good enough for ninth which was far too close for comfort.
That pushed Renault's Nico Hulkenberg out of the top ten, putting him in the company of Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll - all of whom had already seen their team mates eliminated at the end of Q1. With track temperatures dropping as a consequence of dark clouds building up overhead, everyone had a chance for one final flying lap to decide their fate.
Vettel used his to good effect to set the fastest time of the round. However he was also placed under investigation for impeding Renault's Carlos Sainz. Both Mercedes were also back out on track, this time on ultras, but neither man wanted to improve on their earlier times as it would upset their race strategy.
Alonso looked to be in with a chance of going faster until the McLaren ran wide in the final corner and damaged the front wing on the MCL33, ending his attack. More successful was Hulkenberg who improved by one place to eject Gasly from the safety of the top ten. Ricciardo likewise wrung out a little extra speed to improve one place to eighth ahead of Sainz. While Ocon's final lap was also an improvement it was only good enough for 11th, meaning he was out of the running.
Q3: Bottas beats the rest to go back on top at Spielberg
This time Red Bull were out on track without delay, Verstappen delighting the crowds by going top with a time of 1:04.061s but this was quickly bettered by Raikkonen and by the Mercedes pair of Bottas and Hamilton, despite the Briton making a hash of turn 2 which left him with a handful of oversteet into turn 3. Vettel also had a messy first run, going wide at turn 4 and narrowly avoiding the gravel meaning the lap was only good enough for sixth place behind Ricciardo.
Taking advantage of those mishaps, Raikkonen made a declaration of intent by going second fastest behind Bottas, while Grosjean's impressive first flier was good enough for fourth to go ahead of Verstappen, Ricciardo and Vettel.
After regrouping in the garage, all ten drivers headed back out for a final assault on pole position. Bottas held on to the top spot with a time of 1:03.130s which proved good enough to thwart Hamilton by two hundredths of a second. It meant a Mercedes front row lock-out, with Vettel improving to once again pip his team mate and make it an all-Ferrari second row for tomorrow's race.
Verstappen also found a little more speed, enough to wrest fifth from Grosjean. But there was no such good luck for Ricciardo who seemed to be struggling for power and pace and was probably lucky to finish in seventh place ahead of Magnussen, Sainz and Hulkenberg.
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