On a day when rain almost canceled qualifying runs, Hamilton drove brilliantly and McLaren’s impressive comeback continued.
SPIELBERG, Austria—July 11th—It took a 46-minute rain delay–followed by a last-second mistake in the last session by Max Verstappen–to give Lewis Hamilton a revival of confidence Saturday afternoon. The reigning F1 champion took his 89th career pole in advance of Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
Lewis Hamilton: What a tricky day! The weather’s obviously incredibly difficult for all of us. A lot of the time you can’t even see where you’re going. I had one big moment the lap before the last, a big aquaplane, but I was able to improve on the last lap.
Hamilton, who recorded a 1:29:273 best time of the day, dominated the qualifying sessions, taking the first two rounds before setting the best time in the final one. Verstappen had a chance to deliver but a last-minute mistake in the final corner cost the Dutchman a chance to overtake Hamilton.
Nevertheless, Verstappen will line up along Hamilton on the front row for race day along with Carlos Sainz Jr., who took third–just ahead of last week’s winner and current series leader, Valtteri Bottas.
Sainz’s teammate, Lando Norris took sixth, but he’ll start Sunday’s race in ninth thanks to a three-grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags during Friday practice. Despite Norris’ penalty, the performance of the two McLaren’s offers additional evidence that the team is inching into contention against the best teams.
On Saturday, there was just enough of a window to hold qualifying. There was a lot of spinning off the circuit, but the only stints of the belonged to Alex Albon, who finished in seventh, along with Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean and Antonio Giovinazzi. Giovinazzi crashed into the wall at turn nine but recovered to bring out the red flag to finish the first session.
Perhaps the biggest story of the day was Ferrari’s continuing struggles. Charles Leclerc couldn’t do any better than 11th, which eliminated him from the final session. Teammate Sebastian Vettel ended up 10th.
For the rest of the top ten, Esteban Ocon took an impressive fifth in his Renault, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished in ninth. Although
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly rounded up the top ten qualifiers with an eighth-place finish. The other American Haas F1 driver, Kevin Magnussen, advanced past the opening session, but was eliminated in the second and will start 15th.
But the winner of the day, Lewis Hamilton, is looking forward to tomorrow, knowing that after a great performance in wet conditions he can do even better in dry. “I hear tomorrow is going to be a much more sunny day,” Hamilton concluded. Those were welcome words, indeed.
