The tricky conditions under which the first round of qualifying started in Austria today shuffled the lineup and proved to be fatal for Ferrari’s intentions at the Red Bull Ring. Set with intermediate tires, the first fast laps from the session were clocked around 1:19 by the young Toro Rosso duo of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. As the track dried out, such time would plummet to the low 1:08.000s.
As soon as a dry trail on the wet track started to form, favorites started improving their times. However, a strategy blunder took Kimi Raikkonen to the boxes, as the drying track allowed faster laps every minute. The 2007 World Champ was cut at the end of the Q1 as a result alongside Will Stevens, Roberto Merhi, Sergio Pérez and Jenson Button.
Q2 saw another proof of Ferrari’s capabilities in Zeltweg, as Vettel provisionally snagged the first position from Nico Rosberg, lowering his time from 1:10. With the track almost fully dried, though, Nico Rosberg came back to top the charts at the end of the session.
He was to be joined in Q3 by teammate Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, both Williamses of Massa and Bottas, the Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen, the lone Red Bull of Daniil Kvyat, another Ferrari-powered car in Felipe Nasr’s Sauber and the No .8 Lotus-Mercedes driven by Romain Grosjean. Pastor Maldonado, Marcus Ericsson, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso did not make the cut.
The last 12-minutes of happy hour to decide the pole started as predicted: the favorites setting their times early, while drivers who would feature in the bottom of the top-10 rested in their garages. Rosberg was the fastest in the first round of fast laps with a 1:08.850. Hamilton set the second fastest, a 1:09.225. The Williams-Mercedes were third and fourth, with Massa and Bottas, respectively.
With less than six minutes to go, Vettel hit the track to set his first flying lap as Rosberg improved to 1:08.656. Hamilton, however, obliterated that time, clocking a 1:08.455 to put him on provisional pole. Meanwhile, Vettel drove his Ferrari to the usual third place, 0.663 off Hamilton’s quickest time.
As the last shootout started, Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen were the only drivers without a time set in the Q3. Entering the final minute, the Toro Rosso rookie went sixth in his first clocked lap, over a second off the leader.
In the final seconds, however, what would be a tight battle for the pole ended up in the gravel. First, Hamilton, right after crossing the start/finish line, went off at Turn 1, bringing a caution. Then Nico Rosberg, his teammate who had just set the quickest sector times of the Q3, made a mistake at Turn 8, ending his chances to steal the pole from the defending World Champion.
Hamilton claimed for Mercedes its eighth pole position in as many races this season, boosted by another Saturday 1-2 finish. Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa will share the second row, as last week’s Le Mans winner Nico Hülkenberg and Massa’s teammate Valtteri Bottas will start from sixth and seventh, respectively. Verstappen, Kvyat, Nasr and Grosjean will complete the top-10.
Follow @VAVELFormula1 on Twitter for coverage of Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.
Pete Liguori is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @PeteUSSports.
