New Delhi: Lando Norris has taken the pole position in the Austrian Grand Prix by the largest margin of the season at Red Bull’s backyard. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took second place with Driver’s Championship leader, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, finishing in third place. Coming 22 points behind his teammate, the pole position is what the doctor ordered for Norris for him to remain in contention for the championship.
Norris had led in both the practice sessions, and all he needed to do in the Q3 was not to make a mistake and give away the run he had so far. Leclerc managed to cut between the two McLarens with his teammate Lewis Hamilton in the fourth, just 0.065 seconds behind Piastri. George Russell stands in the fifth place with Liam Lawson right behind him, after what has been a hard season. His former teammate sits in seventh place after backing out during the final segment of the Q3, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto.
Here’s the line-up for Sunday’s race 👀#F1 #AustrianFP pic.twitter.com/4EWfloiNoP
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In Q2, the two Ferraris and Alex Albon made the first initial runs with Leclerc ahead of Hamilton by 0.205 seconds. With just 10 minutes left, the rest of the pit followed to complete their laps in Q1 and Leclerc was caught between the two Racing Bull cars. The Championship front runners were yet to set their time, and Versteppen bettered Lawson’s time by 0.145 seconds.
For the McLaren duo, it was quite easy to clear the pack, but the two Ferraris gave a good competition to the lot. With just six minutes on the clock, a Red flag appeared after the grass at the beginning of the pit straight caught fire. The Q2’s biggest talk was from Bortoleto, with the rookie having the fifth-fastest lap in the middle session. Pierre Gasly managed to make his lap come close to accuracy and had the sixth-fastest time in the session, with his teammate Franco Colapinto knocked out after finishing P14. Despite Gasly making his sixth appearance in Q3 despite his team struggled in the 10th spot.
During Q1, it was McLaren who were clearly dominating, with Norris staying four-tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen with 10 minutes left in the first session. With just three minutes left, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, the Aston Martin duo of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and Ollie Bearman were all in the drop zone.
In just 0.024 seconds was the difference between the 15th and 16th place driver, with the 10-15 consisting of Leclerc, Russell, Yuki Tsunoda, Lawson, Colapinto and Carlos Sainz. With just a few seconds left, Russell was quite close to the drop zone but managed to fight his way out of it.
