Verstappen Seizes Pole, Norris Excels in Austrian GP Sprint
We’re back in Spielberg for Round 11 of the 2024 F1 Season high in the mountains at the Red Bull Ring, the home of the Red Bull team and the 2nd Home race for Max Verstappen as the Orange Army always go hard at this track.
The track since the last time we have been here has gotten some changes to try and mitigate track limits which is always a big issue here as drivers always try and use every inch of the track that they can to extract the most amount of lap time they can get. On Turns 9 and 10 there has been 2 gravel traps added less than 2 meters from the white line so that it will force the drivers to stay within track limits where at Turn 4 they moved the white line closer to the gravel to achieve the same effect.
We now head into FP1 which is the only Practice session we will be getting this weekend given that this is a Sprint Weekend which slightly alters the weekend structure for the teams and they also get less sets of tyres which makes everything a bit more tricky and mistakes will be more costly. Everything was going smoothly until Verstappen reported some Engine issues and had to pull to the side on the start finish straight and the Red Flag came out so that the car can be retrieved. Verstappen reported that they only thing he changed was the High Diff settings.
After a quick retrieval of the car the session restarted and it seemed that Red Bull were able to to follow the IT Crowd advise and after a quick turning it off and on again, Verstappen was out back on track and doing his practice runs. At the end of the session in FP1 we see Max Verstappen top the leaderboard, followed by Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc ahead of the Sprint Qualifying, it was worth noting that even though Mercedes pair, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were lower on the leaderboard, they had their timed laps on the Hard tyres so their times weren’t representative of their true pace.
Heading now into the last session for the Friday where drivers need to qualify in the best possible spot ahead of the Sprint Race on Saturday. After the initial runs in SQ1 we see Max Verstappen be the quickest followed by George Russell and Carlos Sainz while we see Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton and Zhou Guanyu at the elimination zone as both Guanyu and Hamilton had their lap times deleted for going over track limits. Towards the end of SQ1 we see Yuki Tsunoda have a moment in Turn 9 as he loses the rear and spins out but luckily he was able to keep it out the barriers and get back going. At the end of SQ1 we end up losing Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Daniel Ricciardo and Zhou Guanyu. Zhou Guanyu ended up not setting any time as both his laps were deleted.
In SQ2 we see only 8 cars go for a first run due to the lack of tyres from the other drivers didn’t have enough tyres. After everyone managed to finish all their runs, we end up losing Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant. In SQ3 we don’t see any driver make an appearance on track in the first half and then in the last 3 mins we hear George Russell asking the team to get a move on as it will be carnage otherwise, and carnage it was as everyone tried to all come out at the same time and we see Leclerc having some issues and had to pull to the side on the pitlane and when he managed to get going again he unfortunately didn’t have enough time to make it round the track and couldn’t set a time. After everyone finished their lap it was Max Verstappen who took pole followed by Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc will from the Top 10 for the Sprint Race on Saturday.
Verstappen Dominates Qualifying; Norris Chases in Sprint Race
Heading now into the Saturday sessions, we start by looking at the sprint race which will be the first time this weekend where the cars will go round the track 24 times. We get news that Williams opted to break Parc Ferme and have Alex Albon start from the pitlane. The cars go round the track for the formation lap and once they line up and get ready to go we get something that doesn’t happen so often and we get an abandoned race start where the cars had to go round the track for one more formation lap, this was due to some photographers being dangerously placed in Turn 1 so they had to move and the cars went round one more time round the track. This also meant that we will now get 23 laps of racing laps because of the 2nd formation lap.
At the start then once the lights went out, we see Max Verstappen get a great start and so the McLarens as all 3 of them managed to hold their positions. At Ferrari we see Carlos Sainz manage to get past George Russell later in Lap 1, but the one to note was Charles Leclerc as he made 4 places off the start and went from 10th to 6th in the space of one lap. On Lap 3 we see Lando Norris pushing quite hard and get on the back of Verstappen and really making Verstappen defend. This was all until Lap 5 where we see Norris actually dive into Turn 3 and takes the lead, unfortunately this didn’t last long as Verstappen had DRS on the run into Turn 4 and Norris left the door open and Max took the inside line while his teammate Oscar Piastri decided to take the outside and Norris ended up losing 2 places in one corner.
We get a radio message from GP to Verstappen to sort it out and sort it out he did as by Lap 8 we see him starting to build a healthy gap to Piastri and get him self a bit out of threat of an attack again, this was all happening while Russell was able to get a great drive out of Turn 3 and managed to get Sainz back into Turn 4 getting back 4th place back that he had lost at the start. On Lap 11 we see Albon who was still running in last able to get past the Sauber of Zhou Guanyu into Turn 3 as he dives into the inside. Albon liked this move so much that a few laps later on Lap 20, he was able to pull the same move on Zhous teammate Bottas in the same corner.
Norris on Lap 15 regained his composure and started pushing once more and started closing in on his teammate trying to get back to the front however this was all in vein as Piastri was doing enough around the track to keep his teammate behind and allow Verstappen to keep pulling away as it seems that no one had an answer for Verstappens pace in the closing stages of the race. Max Verstappen ended up taking the first chequered flag of the weekend followed by Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez taking the point scoring positions. Lando Norris managed to bag the fastest lap of the race but this doesn’t have an additional point like it would in the normal race.
Heading now into Qualifying where the drivers will be able to do some more changes to their setup without getting penalised as a new Parc Ferme comes into place so all teams would ahve been busy doing their learnings from their sprint race and put into effect ahead of qualifying.
In Q1 we see Carlos Sainz on top followed by Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen after the first runs and in the elimination zones we see Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu. And at the end of the session we end up losing Alex Albon, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu.
Q2 was fairly standard as well as there wasn’t much drama or people getting in the way of others despite it being one of the shortest tracks as after the first runs we see Verstappen, Sainz and Russell taking top 3 while we see Gasly, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Magnussen and Alonso in the bottom 5. The drivers all return to the pits and come out again for their last runs in Q2 and we end up losing Ricciardo, Gasly, Magnussen, Tsunoda and Alonso out of the Top 10.
Into Q3 now and the last chance for the drivers to give their best chance of a good starting position ahead of tomorrow’s race as we see Verstappen putting his Red Bull into a different gear as he seemed to be flying as he takes provisional pole followed by Norris and Russell. And after one more final lap, no one was able to go quick enough to get close to Verstappen as he secures pole position followed by Norris, Russell, Sainz, Hamilton, Leclerc, Piastri, Perez, Hulkenberg and Ocon form the top 10. Piastri had his lap time deleted for track limits which is why he was dropped to 7th as he was initially in 3rd spot, McLaren did try to petition this with the FIA but their protest was inadmissible so nothing came out of this and the qualifying result stands.
Who do you think will be able to come out on top tomorrow in the race? Will Max Verstappen fly away and get an easy win in the home race of his team Red Bull or will Norris be able to take the challenge to him once more? Tune in for the post race review to find out.
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