It was absolutely fantastic to see the Formula 1 circus come back to Austria after an 11-year break. The scenery at Red Bull Ring (former A1 Ring) is very eye-catching: the perfect venue for Formula 1 racing! The track is only 4,3 km long but the altitude variations make it stand out from all the other tracks on the calendar.
Most drivers made their first run in Q1 on Pirelli´s soft-compound tyres and then switched to supersofts at the end of the session to improve their lap time. That wasn´t, however, the case in terms of the Williams drivers, Mercedes duo or Red Bull drivers. Also Alonso at the wheel of his Ferrari set his fastest lap time on the yellow-marked soft tyres. Still Hamilton topped the timesheets with his team-mate Rosberg in P3. The Russian Toro Rosso driver Kvyat made an impressive work and was 2nd fastest in the first session (on supersofts naturally). Red Bull had seemed to be struggling with their pace already in the free practice sessions but still it was pretty worrying to see Sebastian being only 15th fastest in spite of the tyre choice. Both Sauber drivers were out of Q2 as well as the Marussia and Caterham drivers.
Q2 held some nasty surprises. As expected, Rosberg and Hamilton were the fastest men on track but this time they didn´t have the huge margin over their rivals like in previous races. The Williams duo Bottas and Massa were right on Mercedes´ tail! Perez in his Force India was the first to be knocked out of the final session whilst his team-mate Hulkenberg progressed into Q3. Button in his McLaren was out of Q3 as well but his team-mate Magnussen managed to make it into Q3. And what broke my heart was to see Sebastian at the wheel of his RB10 not to make his way into the decisive final session! Sebastian was only 13th fastest today whilst his team-mate Ricciardo also made it among the top ten. Ricciardo has beaten Sebastian already 6 times in qualifying this year! It was such a disappointment to see that on Red Bull´s home soil Sebastian couldn´t do better today. Kimi at the wheel of his Ferrari also had difficulties to pull out a decent lap but the Iceman just barely made it into Q3 by being 10th fastest.
When the final session got underway it became obvious that the Williams drivers could really challenge the Mercedes duo for pole in Spielberg! After the first runs Bottas was topping the timesheets with Rosberg 2nd and Massa 3rd. Q3 involved some dramatic turns as well as Hamilton´s first lap time was disallowed due to track limit violation at turn 8. The stewards had informed the drivers already beforehand that failing to respect track limits between turn 8 and 9 would lead to disallowing the lap time. Kimi and Hulkenberg made only one attempt in Q3 but Hulkenberg shared Hamilton´s fate as the German´s lap time was disallowed as well due to a similar violation. More drama was to follow: Hamilton locked up and spun on his second run and was therefore unable to set a lap time! I couldn´t help wondering if the huge amount of pressure was starting to show... Rosberg had to abort his flying lap due to yellow flags caused by his team-mate so he had to settle for 3rd place. Massa at the wheel of his FW36 sensationally made it on pole being 87 thousandths of a second faster than his team-mate Bottas, who completed the front row lock-out for Williams! Wow, who could have predicted that one coming?! This was the first 1-2 for Williams since the German GP in 2003! So the grid for tomorrow´s race looks like this: 1.Massa, 2. Bottas, 3. Rosberg, 4. Alonso, 5.Ricciardo, 6. Magnussen, 7. Kvyat, 8. Räikkönen, 9. Hamilton, 10. Hulkenberg.
So what are my expectations for tomorrow´s race? I´m sure the Williams drivers will have a hard time with Rosberg especially. Mercedes´ race pace on the long runs has been very impressive but let´s see what Massa and Bottas will be capable of. Mercedes cars have already turned out to be vulnerable and not immune to technical worries so I believe both Massa and Bottas have a real chance to fight for victory tomorrow. Hamilton needs a miracle to be able to win tomorrow as he starts from P9. Kimi also has a challenging race awaiting... Not to mention Sebastian, who will start from P13!
P.S. Unfortunately I missed a huge part of the Canadian GP, which took place a fortnight ago as I was travelling on a camper with my family. So for the first time in 4 years I also didn´t write a blog post although there was a race! And what a race it was: both Mercedes cars were hit with overheating problems and in Hamilton´s case it lead to DNF. Ricciardo took his maiden win in F1, Rosberg finished 2nd in spite of lacking the extra 150 HP due to a failure of his MGU-K and Vettel finished 3rd. Perez and Massa collided on the final lap and Perez was handed a 5-place grid penalty for Austrian GP due to causing the collision.
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