Charles Leclerc P2, Carlos Sainz P3 in 2023 Austrian GP qualifying

It’s Friday, it’s Qualifying! Yes that’s right F1 Sprint means the grid for Sunday’s main Grand Prix was set today.

It’s been 12 months since Ferrari last won a race and they are fourth in the constructors’ championship coming into this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz spent the opening half of Practice on harder tyres and heavy fuel, before showing some serious pace in the Qualy simulations. The Monegasque has pulled off some spectacular laps during his Formula 1 career so far, while Carlos Sainz looked in good shape during Practice. Max Verstappen topped the only Practice session earlier this afternoon but the field looked very tight on the short lap around the Red Bull Ring.

The Red Bull Ring is the shortest lap of the year in terms of lap time. Last year’s pole time from Max Verstappen was a 1:04.984 for reference. If you do the maths and all 20 cars are out there, everyone would need to be just over three seconds apart if the gaps were equal. However, we all know some cars are on in laps, some are on out laps and some are on flying laps. Throw into the mix that the drivers often back up before the final two corners and there was almost guaranteed to be some impeding issues.

Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz was outside the Ferrari garage ahead of qualifying: “All the Ferrari engineers including team boss Fred Vasseur are in their seats nice and early. There is an air of optimism because they have brought the latest two keys parts of their upgrades – a new front wing and a new floor. These upgrades to this year’s Ferrari started in Barcelona and those upgrades formed the bedrock for what they have brought here this weekend. Not only did those pieces work in Barcelona it also meant that the floor and front wing here would work as well. The good news is that this Ferrari now feels, so the drivers say after practice, now feels more like last year’s lovely-handling Ferrari than it has at any point this year. Now the drivers have something they feel they can do things with.”

Just a few minutes until Qualifying began and there was no sign of the showers that around the circuit earlier on. Track temperature was 43 degrees Celsius but decreased throughout the hour as the sun began to go down.

Qualifying was go and it was time to set the grid for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. The Haas pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen led the cars out onto the track. There were already a flurry of lap time deletions including Nico Hulkenberg, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. The latter two were for going wide at the final corner as they started their flying lap, while Valtteri Bottas spun at the exit of Turn One and we had a red flag as Bottas couldn’t restart his car.

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Charles Leclerc was only sixth fastest with his first run in Q1 but the Ferrari was on a used set of soft tyres for his first efforts. Lewis Hamilton meanwhile could only go 12th with his opening effort just before the red flag was thrown out. Bottas eventually managed to get his car going again after struggling to get his Alfa Romeo into neutral and was able to continue in Qualifying. There was 11:49 remaining on the clock for this first part of qualifying.

Max Verstappen had his fastest time deleted for track limits and that meant the Dutchman found himself back in the bottom five when the session resumed. There was a big stampede out of the pit lane as the clouds came over the track. Max Verstappen went back to the top on a 1:05.116, which is 0.223s faster than Carlos Sainz. Then come Charles Leclerc, Labdo Norris, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou.

George Russell’s latest lap only put him ninth, while Sergio Perez was 11th. If the drivers at risk of elimination put on some fresh rubber went go faster, they were both be in danger of going out. Alex Albon got himself into Q2 again with a fine lap to lift himself up to P8. Esteban Ocon also got himself into the next part of qualifying by lifting himself up to 11th, while George Russell also ensured he wouldn’t be in danger having slipped to 15th with a lap that lifted him to 10th. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were split by Pierre Gasly in third and fifth. The drivers out in Q1 were: Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnessun, Nyck de Vries.

Q2 was under way as the Red Bulls led the pack out of the pit lane: Max Verstappen asked if there is any rain, before being told by engineer Gianpiero Lambiase “no”.

Charles Leclerc chose to do another warm-up lap, while Carlos Sainz went sixth. Lewis Hamilton was eighth and George Russell was 10th. But they were all on used tyres. And as expected – it was very close but Max Verstappen had that lap time deleted, while Sergio Perez then also got his lap time deleted, which meant Lando Norris now topped the Q2 timesheet at this stage of Q2. Pierre Gasly put his Alpine into P2 but was still nearly three tenths of a second off Lando Norris’ benchmark in Q2.

Max Verstappen wasn’t happy with the track limits but he went into the 1:04s again with his latest effort which was definitely safe. It was a 1;04.951 for the Dutchman, and Carlos Sainz then went P2 in the Ferrari SF-23 car. Sergio Perez was two tenths slower than his team-mate and in fifth. Lewis Hamilton rescued himself by going fifth but George Russell was only 11th. Russell didn’t appear to be as comfortable with the car at that stage compared to Hamilton. Both Aston Martins were in a bit of trouble with four minutes remaining: Fernando Alonso had a lap time deleted which dropped him from P4 to P8. Lance Stroll was down in 12th. And Sergio Perez had a second lap deleted so he was bottom of the standings. It was all about his final lap in Q2 to ensure he got into the top 10. The Mexican was already out on track.

George Russell was out of qualifying. He could only get up to P10 with his latest effort and was then dumped into the bottom five as Sergio Perez went second. However, we then had confirmation that Sergio Perez was out of qualifying again after another lap deletion. All four wheels went over the white line through the final corner and after three lap time deletions, the Mexican will start P15 on Sunday. George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Oscar Piastri, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez were out in Q2. After all that drama, Max Verstappen topped Q2 by 0.024s from Carlos Sainz. Lando Norris was less than one tenth behind the Red Bull driver in third.

Q3 was green and it was Alex Albon who was out on track by himself on used soft tyres. Alex Albon got his Q3 banker lap in on an old set of soft tyres. He set a 1:05.823 for the others to beat. Max Verstappen went fastest with a 1:04.503 and looked like he kept his car within the track limits. And Charles Leclerc went second, 0.206s behind Max Verstappen. It was then Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris on the second row for now. We were yet to see Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso was only fifth fastest with his opening effort but he was also on a set of used soft tyres. No track limit violations so far from the first nine drivers to set a lap time.

Max Verstappen was on provisional pole position and he improved his best effort with a 1:04.391 that was the time to beat. Charles Leclerc pushed very hard in the final two corners but missed out on pole position by just 0.048s, as the Dutchman took pole position for the fourth race in a row. Carlos Sainz was third, Lando Norris fourth and Lewis Hamilton fifth.