First of all a very happy 34th birthday to our one and only Sebastian Vettel. The Aston Martin driver celebrated his birthday with his crew members in the garage before heading out for FP3 followed by quali.
In other news, 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton just extended his contract with Mercedes and will be driving for the team until the end of 2023. Although there was no news on whom will drive alongside Lewis.
FP3
Blue skies over the circuit and no signs of rain. All cars take off for a final practice ahead of the quail session in the afternoon. All cars testing tires and testing strategies.
The Austrian Qualifying
Q1
It's green light for Q1 as Nikita starts of the session followed by his teammate Mick and Verstappen. Nikita was the first to set the fastest time followed by Mick. As each car come onto the track, they all go ahead and beat each other and set the fastest time in a matter of seconds. Stroll when fastest until Gasly set the fastest time but that time was broken by Vettel, Giovanazzi, Raikkonen and Norris, respectively. Norris set the fastest time until
Verstappen went purple in all sectors and setting the fastest time with 1.04.249. Gasly got this lap time deleted for track limitation at turn 9. Carlos Sainz seems to have the faster Ferrari as he was only 0.347 behind Max. Unlike Max who was flying, his teammate struggling a little as he was running p11. With 2 minutes go all cars go for a final flying lap.
The last 5 out of Q1 are: MAZ, MSC, LAT, OCO, RAI
Q2
Greenlight for Q2. As Checo as the track to himself. With an empty track, Checo sets the fastest time lap by going purple in all sectors with 1.04.554. With only 10 minutes to go, all 15 cars on track. Lewis Hamilton goes on a flying lap and setting the lap record of 1.04.501 but that was only for a short moment when Verstappen crossed the line with 1.04.208.
5 minutes to go and both the Ferraris at the bottom of the time charts. All cars go for a final flying lap, traffic builds up at the pitlane entry and cars moving slowly.
Fernando Alonso missed on Q3 as he was blocked by Sebastian Vettel, who was again stuck in traffic had of him. Vettel in turn got 3 place grid penalty with 1 point deduction from his super lisence.
Great day for Williams as Mr Saturday, George Russell makes it into Q3 for the first time. Celebration in the Williams garage. This is the first time William made it into Q3 since Massa in 2018 before he retired.
Bottom 5 out of Q2: GIO, ALO, RIC, LEC, SAI
And the fight for Pole begins
Greenlight for the final quali round. Stroll ahead of Vettel ahead of Gasly.
10 minutes to go, all 10 cars come out of the time lane slowly to claim the pole position. Hamilton goes on a flying lap who was followed by Max. Each car going faster than the other with Norris setting the fastest lap time with 1.03.958. Max went for a second flying lap and went faster than Norris to get that pole position with 1.03.720 .
Norris missed the pole with a 0.048 gap to Verstappen putting him in P2. His first front grid position for Lando Norris who was followed by Perez in P3. Both the Mercedes qualified 4th and 5th.
Lando Norris was the highlight of the day, not only did he split both RedBulls, he out-qualified both Mercedes. Outstanding performance by Lando and a wonderful day in the McLaren garage. Max(23) in P1 and Lando(21) in P2 - this is the youngest front row in the history of F1.
Top 10: MAX, NOR, PER, HAM, BOT, GAS, TSU, VET ( will start 11th due to penalty ), RUS, STR, SAI (P11 but will start 10th due to Vettel's penalty)
Exciting qualifying session. Let's see what happens on Race Day.
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