Ferrari boss explains ‘disappointing qualifying session’ in Austria. Ferrari boss explains Ferrari 'disappointing qualifying session' in Austria .

Even before taking to the track, Scuderia Ferrari was aware that it would not have an easy time of it at the Austrian Grand Prix.

This afternoon’s qualifying confirmed that and produced a scenario that was even more complex than one could have expected, with around ten cars fighting down to the thousandth of a second for grid places from the third to the seventh row.

This was compounded by the very short lap length. Charles Leclerc managed to get through to the final part of qualifying and was seventh fastest to start from row four. Sebastian Vettel had a more difficult time of it and got no further than Q2, having to settle for eleventh place on the sixth row of the grid for tomorrow’s race that gets underway at 15.10 CET.

Mattia Binotto Team Principal: “There’s no point denying that was a disappointing qualifying session. We knew the start of the season would be difficult for us and today’s result certainly confirmed that to be the case, even more so than we had expected.

“We have to analyse very carefully every aspect of our performance and compare it to the opposition, trying to understand why there is this gap. Now, we will prepare as well as possible for tomorrow’s race, which will be tough with plenty of unknown factors, more so than usual, it being the first of this strange season.

“We will carry out our tasks to the best of our ability, trying to get everything out of the package we have here. It’s pointless to predict where we might finish and we must just try and score as many points as possible.

“At least Saturday in Spielberg has ended on a positive note for us as three of our Ferrari Driver Academy drivers made a clean sweep of the podium places in the first Formula 2 race of the season.

Congratulations to Callum Ilott on taking his first win in this very competitive category and well done to second and third-placed Marcus Armstrong and Robert Shwartzman, both of them on their F2 debut. Giuliano Alesi did well to fight his way up the order to sixth and Mick Schumacher was also a contender, in the battle for the win for two-thirds of the race.”