Brendan Lines July 12, 2020 10:00am
Sopping wet conditions at the Red Bull Ring pushed driver’s to the limit for qualifying, but amid the grey skies across the Styrian Hills Lewis Hamilton lit up the track with purple sectors to take his 89th career pole position by a staggering +1.216s from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Styrian Grand Prix.
It was a rain-affected Saturday as forecast, which forced the cancellation of the morning’s FP3, the varying conditions made for varying results as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz pipped Mercedes Valtteri Bottas for P3 on the grid.
The pace of Racing Point was washed away from their speed in FP1, as Sergio Perez did not make it out of Q1 and Lance Stroll struggled for grip in the crucial moments of Q2 to remain in P13.
Hamilton’s final flying lap, later described by Mercedes Team principal Toto Wolff to The Race as ‘not from this world’ in Q3, came just as rain intensified at the start of the session, pushing the fields laps times into the +1:20.000s.
Lewis Hamilton celebrates his pole position at the Styrian GP – Image: mercedsamgf1.com
Driving flawlessly in the sodden conditions, Hamilton’s performance was lauded by Wolff.
“What a Qualifying session. It was an absolutely stunning lap from Lewis and an incredible performance in very challenging conditions. I don’t remember the last time somebody had a gap of 1.2 seconds to second place in qualifying,” he said.
It was a perfect storm for Hamilton who timed his run amongst the traffic on track and deployed his battery pack wisely, balancing the car on the edge of aquaplaning with precise throttle control.
“I’m grateful that we got to do qualifying – I love these days. The weather was incredibly difficult and challenging out there for all of us,” Hamilton said.”A lot of the time you can’t see where you are going. I had a big aquaplaning moment on my penultimate lap, so I had my heart in my mouth, but I was able to improve on the final lap, nice and clean.”
“A lot of the time you can’t see where you are going. I had a big aquaplaning moment on my penultimate lap, so I had my heart in my mouth, but I was able to improve on the final lap, nice and clean.”
Max Verstappen challenged at the top across the qualifying sessions, but his final lap came unstuck on the entry of Turn 11, what looked an improvement on his personal best was still off from Hamilton’s pace, but the Dutchman had to settle for P2 with a 1:20.489s.
“I felt very comfortable but in Q3 it rained more and with the extra standing water we were struggling a bit more and I wasn’t as happy with the balance with a lot of oversteer.” Verstappen said after qualifying.
“My final lap could of course have been a little better and I had a four wheel drift over the last kerb but still it would not have been good enough to beat Lewis,” Verstapppen said after qualifying.
Carlos Sainz continued McLaren’s uptick in performance with P3, the Spaniard out qualified his teammate Lando Norris for the first time this season with a 1:20.671s, last week’s podium place-getter Norris qualified P6 +1.652 off Hamilton’s time.
“I’m very happy with P3, especially in these conditions! I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of driving in the wet and achieving my best-ever qualifying result today feels great. Towards the end of Q3 the track got even trickier and it wasn’t easy to judge where to take the bigger risks,” Sainz said.
Definitely the most exciting and stressful qualifying sessions I’ve done. Starting P3 tomorrow puts us in a great spot to fight for good points, but there is still a long way to go until the chequered flag. The race will be dry tomorrow so things can change quickly. We’ll prepare everything tonight and go for it tomorrow!”
Esteban Ocon continued on his merry return with Renault in P5, Ocon ran as high as P3 during Q3 and looked comfy in the wet.
“It definitely feels great to be inside Q3 and even better to be inside the top five! The car felt great and I felt confident straight away in very challenging conditions. When there’s rain, I feel comfortable, so I’m very happy to put the car in that position,” he said.
Ocon’s teammate Aussie Daniel Ricciardo is likely to benefit from Norris’ thee-place grid penalties, the Australian qualified P10, but with a dry race forecast, the prolific overtaker should be able to bag some valuable first points for the season.
“I was a little bit off in the final session, it probably just got away from us a little bit. But, it’s great for the team to have both cars inside the top ten,” Ricciardo said.
“Tomorrow will be fun. The weather looks like it will be the opposite from today, so we’ll see what happens.”
Pierre Gasly slotted into P8 with a 1:21.028s, the Frenchman’s Alpha Tauri had been knocking on the door of the top ten fastest all weekend, but Gasly believes P5 was on the table.
“It was tough but also really enjoyable and I think we really maximised our chances. It’s just a shame for the yellow flag in the last lap, as I think I was going two or three tenths faster, so there could probably have been a P5 on the table,” he said.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc struggled, the wet conditions might have favoured their lack of straight line speed, both cars were over two seconds slower than Mercedes’ pace.
Vettel looked more consistent over one lap finishing P10 with a 1:21.192s, ahead of Leclec’s 1:21.651s in P11.
Leclerc was later handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kyvat.
Williams’ George Russell revelled in the mix-up of the field amid the wet conditions, gaining Williams its first appearance in Q2 since Brazil 2016, Russell’s final time of 1:19.636 in the lighter rain of q2 was enough to secure P12 on the grid.
The Styrian Grand Prix begins 10:40pm ACT.
Full Results;
Note – Norris penalised three grid places for overtaking under yellow flags during FP1. Leclerc penalised three grid places for impeding Kvyat during qualifying.
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:18.188 | 1:17.825 | 1:19.273 | |
| 2 | 1:18.297 | 1:17.938 | 1:20.489 | |
| 3 | 1:18.590 | 1:18.836 | 1:20.671 | |
| 4 | 1:18.791 | 1:18.657 | 1:20.701 | |
| 5 | 1:19.687 | 1:18.764 | 1:20.922 | |
| 6 | 1:18.504 | 1:18.448 | 1:20.925 | |
| 7 | 1:20.882 | 1:19.014 | 1:21.011 | |
| 8 | 1:20.192 | 1:18.744 | 1:21.028 | |
| 9 | 1:19.662 | 1:19.229 | 1:21.192 | |
| 10 | 1:20.243 | 1:19.545 | 1:21.651 | |
| 11 | 1:20.871 | 1:19.628 | ||
| 12 | 1:20.382 | 1:19.636 | ||
| 13 | 1:19.697 | 1:19.645 | ||
| 14 | 1:19.824 | 1:19.717 | ||
| 15 | 1:21.140 | 1:20.211 | ||
| 16 | 1:21.372 | |||
| 17 | 1:21.607 | |||
| 18 | 1:21.759 | |||
| 19 | 1:21.831 | |||
| 20 | DNS |
Grandprixnet.com 