Verstappen offers Red Bull pole at home, disaster for Mercedes

Max Verstappen didn't even need to wait for his engineer's radio message. The roar, like one man, from the Oranje stand had given him the indication of this third pole position in a row in Austria. On the Red Bull Ring, his employer's circuit, and in front of a horde of Dutchmen, the Batavian indeed signed his third pole position of the season, the first in the dry, and the sixteenth of his career. “Super Max” beat his great rival for the title Charles Leclerc by only 29 thousandths, and the winner of the British Grand Prix Carlos Sainz for 82 thousandths. 

The three men stand in a handkerchief. The two red flags waved in Q3 considerably disrupted everyone's plans. While Red Bull had a big advantage in sector 1 since the start of the weekend, while Ferrari excelled in sector 2, the performances ended up converging to the point that the three top boys were in the same tenth. Sergio Perez (Red Bull) completes the top 4 but is almost half a second behind the time set by his teammate. 

Disaster for Mercedes

Big disappointment on the other hand for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. The two pilots Mercedes in fact each caused a red flag in Q3, while the brand with the star seemed to have made enormous progress in pure performance. The first to make a mistake was Lewis Hamilton (10th). While he was on the attack with possibly a provisional first line in his sights, the seven-time world champion lost the rear of his W13 in turn 7, and hit sideways, enough to worry for the chassis and gearbox? To have…

Hamilton is out of the car after going into the barriers at Turn 7#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Xx8Yo3IG2f

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 8, 2022

While the green flag had just been waved again for the last five minutes, George Russell (5th) lost the car in turn, in quite similar circumstances, but this time at turn 10, hitting the rear. And since misfortune never happens alone, George Russell is currently under investigation for having crossed the track on foot, which is strictly prohibited. We will note the superb qualification ofEsteban Ocon, 6th ahead of both Haas de Kevin Magnussen et Mick Schumacher, notably beating Fernando Alonso (9e). 

Pierre Gasly will start from 11th position in Saturday's sprint race, and missed Q3 for the fifth time in six qualifying sessions. The Normand only missed… nine thousandths to climb into the last ten best. In delicacy with his McLaren, Lando Norris he will start 15th. Penalized on the grid on Sunday for having fitted a fourth engine on his car, Valtteri Bottas took 13th place, just behind Alex Albon (12th) which makes the updates brought by Williams on his car. 

As in Montreal and Silverstone, both Aston Martin were they again eliminated from Q1 with 17th place in Lance stroll and the 20th of Sebastian Vettel. For its part, Nicholas latifi (Williams) regained his rank after his great English epic until Q3, with a 19th time. He will start on Saturday just behind Guanyu-Zhou, a week after his spectacular accident at Silverstone. Finally another hard blow for Daniel Ricciardo who failed in 16th place, only 20 thousandths behind Pierre Gasly and the passage to Q2. As a reminder, the sprint race will be held this Saturday at 16:30 p.m. 

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