Austria Grand Prix – Sprint Shoutout: Red Bull dominates

For the second time in Formula 1 history, a race weekend adopted the shoutout format. The Saturday session was a small parallel that allowed some drivers to make up for a bad Friday and others to take more risks to grab bonus points.

SQ1:

It was on a wet track that the 20 drivers on the grid took off. These conditions trapped Guanyu Zhou. The Chinese driver spun out at the entrance of the last turn. Eliminated in Q1 on Friday, the hilly Austrian circuit doesn’t seem to be favorable to him.

This first part of qualifications was a true emotional roller coaster for the red team. 3rd during yesterday’s qualifications, Carlos Sainz was unable to replicate his performance today. The cause? A brake issue on his Ferrari forced him to bring his car back to the pits. The mechanics of the Italian team quickly fixed this problem to allow their driver to get back on track with 1 minute and 40 seconds remaining. With only one attempt to escape the last position, the Spanish driver had fire within him and set the fastest time of the session with a 1’06’187.

Yesterday, just behind Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc narrowly avoided falling out of favor during this Sprint Shoutout. Having blocked Oscar Piastri, the Monegasque driver was going to have to finish the session suspecting that he would be penalized on the starting grid for the race. With this sword of Damocles hanging over his head, he was only able to do better than 15th place, with just 1 millisecond ahead of the elimination zone.

The eliminated in SQ1: Logan Sargeant (20th), Valtteri Bottas (19th), Lewis Hamilton (18th), Oscar Piastri (17th), Guanyu Zhou (16th).

SQ2:

The Sprint race was looking very difficult for the Silver Arrows. With his lap cancelled, Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in 18th position during Q1. In Q2, bad luck struck the other Mercedes. The team detected a problem with the front suspension of George Russell’s car. The British driver was not going to go back out on the track and knew he was eliminated with 5 minutes of the session remaining. Being not the strongest team on the grid, the chances of finishing in the points during the Sprint race are very slim for the Mercedes starting so far back in the field.

While Esteban Ocon fiercely set the third best time in Q2, his garage neighbor, Pierre Gasly, had to watch him roll in Q3 with jealousy. The Rouen native was eliminated in 12th position due to heavy traffic that hindered him severely.

This SQ2 didn’t only make unhappy people. Günther Steiner could rejoice in seeing his two drivers in the final part of the qualifications.

The eliminated drivers in SQ2: George Russell (15th), Nyck de Vries (14th), Yuki Tsunoda (13th), Pierre Gasly (12th), Alexander Albon (11th)

SQ3:

Not surprisingly, the Red Bull drivers were showing dominance at home. Max Verstappen was in a league of his own compared to his competitors. Carried by the orange waves in the stands, the Dutchman set the fastest time with almost half a second advantage, a true chasm, over his teammate Sergio Perez. The Mexican made up for a difficult Friday that saw him fail to make it to Q3 for the fourth consecutive Grand Prix.

Orange is definitely the color to wear at the Red Bull Ring. Behind the wheel of his McLaren, Lando Norris once again showed his impressive skills by securing the 3rd position. This circuit proves to be successful for the British driver. It was here that he achieved his first podium in F1 during the inaugural race of the 2020 season. The form of the Bristol native this weekend is evidence of the benefits brought by McLaren to Spielberg.

On the 2nd and 3rd Fridays, the Ferrari drivers couldn’t do better than 5th and 6th place. The prancing horses finished behind Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas. Once again shining in the quick lap exercise, the German also demonstrated a certain athletic quality by making his heavy 800kg car jump. The Haas driver, in fact, drove over a tire held by a mechanic in the pit lane, causing the car to lift a few centimeters off the ground. This action was considered dangerous by the race direction, and it could result in a grid penalty for him.