What the teams said – Qualifying in Austria

Mercedes

Russell put in a quick lap late in FP3 to grab the top spot, the first time he has beaten his team mate this weekend. But it did not initially look like he carried that momentum into Qualifying, with Antonelli fastest in both Q1 and Q2. The Italian also grabbed provisional pole with the first laps in Q3, looking nigh on unstoppable.

But then came the final laps, with Mercedes sending their drivers out last. Russell was clearly on a scorching lap, Antonelli not quite extracting as much. But Verstappen crashed just ahead of the Italian and he lifted off and aborted, believing it was double yellow flag conditions. It was only single, enabling Russell behind to lift through the incident and then put his foot back down. His advantage was such, he still managed to grab pole by over two tenths of a second.

George Russell, 1st, 1:06.113

"P1 feels really good today. That last lap in Q3 felt unbelievable. I could see I was gaining a few tenths corner after corner, and it just felt incredible. Without the yellow flag at the end of the session, I know we could have been even faster.

"It was a tense Q1 and Q2 for us as it was very tight, but once we got into Q3 I just focused on driving instinctively and everything came together. I’ve felt confident in the car all weekend and I’m really pleased we were able to deliver when it mattered most.

"Toto and the team have been hugely supportive. We’re in constant communication and that belief gives you the freedom to go out there and enjoy it, which is exactly what I did today.

"Of course, today is only part of the job. Tomorrow is what counts and it’s going to be a close race. Ferrari and McLaren have looked strong, and Max is always going to be a factor. We’ll need to execute well, stay clean, and make the most of every opportunity."

Kimi Antonelli, 4th, 1:06.414

"It’s been a positive weekend so far and we’ve been able to show good pace as we’ve progressed through the sessions. The final lap in qualifying was coming together well and looked like it could have been close to George, which is encouraging and a learning experience for me.

"I’ve been feeling comfortable in the car, and we’ve shown particularly strong pace on the long runs, so that gives us a good platform heading into tomorrow.

"It’s going to be a challenging race with the conditions and high tyre degradation, so managing that will be key. There is a lot to play for and with different strategies possible, we’ll aim to move forward and maximise the result."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"It wasn’t the most straightforward qualifying session for us with Q1 and Q2 proving quite complicated, so it was important to stay composed and execute cleanly when it mattered.

"George did an outstanding job today. He has been competitive throughout the weekend and, when it mattered most, produced an outstanding lap using all of his experience; he lifted at the right time, managed the necessary amount, and ultimately maximised the lap when it counted. Sometimes you have to simplify things and just drive, and he did exactly that. He’s also handled the tyre quite well throughout the session, which was key in these conditions.

"Kimi has also had another positive weekend. He showed strong pace from the first laps in practice and has been competitive throughout. His final lap in Q3 was compromised by the late yellow flags, but fourth on the grid still gives him every opportunity tomorrow. He continues to gain experience every weekend and has shown once again that he can compete at the very front.

"We know that our competitors will be right on us. They’ve shown that pace already so there’s still plenty to fight for tomorrow."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"A huge congratulations to George and the team on another pole position today. It was a very impressive lap which he managed to pull out when it mattered most.

"The day overall was fairly straightforward. We made some tweaks to the setup overnight and were able to put the car was in a reasonable place in FP3. In qualifying, it felt like Kimi side was having the smoother session. He looked quick in every session and was finding time as the track improved. Kimi was a bit unfortunate with the timing of the yellow at turn 9 on his final run; he'd thought it was a double yellow so backed out of the lap and lost a possible P2.

"George at the same stage was on his best lap by far; despite having to lift through turn 9 he was still able to claim pole by over 0.2s which is a great achievement.

"It's all going to be about the race pace and degradation tomorrow. We've seen enough from Friday to know that it's going to be a close fight with all the teams at the front and the temperatures will be tough on the car and tyres."

Ferrari

Ferrari did not look on the pace of Mercedes in practice, or even McLaren. And when Verstappen nailed his first flying lap in Q3, it looked like the Scuderia might struggle to make the second row. Their cause was not helped by Hamilton running wide in Turn 3 and aborting his first lap in the top-10 shootout, leaving him up against it on the second runs.

But the wily pro gambled and nailed his last lap, as did Leclerc behind. The Monegasque shaded his team mate by just 0.059s and looked to have pole, until Russell’s late run. But P2 is Leclerc’s best start of the year, and Hamilton will be right in the thick of the action from P3 on the grid.

Lewis Hamilton, 3rd, 1:06.408

"I'm pleased with today's result, especially considering the improvements we made after yesterday. The team did an amazing job overnight to understand the issues and make the right changes, and the car felt much better today. From Q1 through to Q3, the execution was excellent and everyone did a fantastic job.

"We're continuing to make progress through lots of small improvements. The updated power unit is another step in that direction, and it's great to see everyone at the factory continuing to push race after race to help us move forward. I'm really proud of the work we've done together, and it's encouraging to see it starting to pay off.

"I left a little bit on the table with my first run in Q3, which was on me, and that affected a bit how I approached the final attempt. But overall, I'm happy with where we've ended up and we'll keep pushing. A big thank you to all the fans here in Austria as well — the support and the energy they bring every year is always incredible."

Charles Leclerc, 2nd, 1 :06.349

"The car felt good today and we worked hard last night to find the improvements we needed in order to increase our competitiveness on this track. On driving side, I wanted to deliver a clean lap in Q3, and I am happy to start from the front row, which we didn’t expect yesterday. The team has been doing an incredible job in developing our upgrades and bringing them to the car so quickly. If we have an opportunity to get ahead in the race, I will do everything to take it and bring home a well deserved result for the team."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"We can be satisfied with today's result. In qualifying we improved from session to session and both drivers put together strong performances, which confirms the progress we made from yesterday.

"After a challenging Friday, with Charles missing the first session to give Dino some track time, the team, both here at the track and back in Maranello, did an excellent job overnight. From FP3 onwards we found a much better balance and took an important step forward.

"Now our full focus is on tomorrow's race. We expect the temperatures to remain very high, which means tyre management will be a key factor. Making the right strategic decisions and managing the tyres throughout the race will be essential if we want to make the most of the strong starting positions we've earned today."

Red Bull

Verstappen was having a stressful Qualifying at Red Bull’s home race well before he crashed into the barriers. He carried fewer sets of soft tyres into Qualifying than the other top drivers, and thus had to take some risks to make Q3. He wound up scraping into the top 10 by just 0.040s, but once there turned things around dramatically. His first flying lap hauled his car into contention for pole, but the RB22 got away from him on his second quick lap.

Verstappen slid through the gravel and ended his day in the barriers, leaving his team with an overnight rebuild. His first effort was good enough to hold onto P5, while Hadjar was a few places lower after only having one set of new softs for Q3.

Max Verstappen, 5th, 1:06.475

“It was a shame what happened in Q3 today but I am all okay. We only had three sets of tyres going into Qualifying and we were pretty tight going into Q3 but it worked out. My laps felt really nice in Q2 and the first lap of Q3 felt strong. Then on my second lap, the car started to feel a bit snappy and I had a big oversteer in T6. In T9 there was a big loss of rear end grip and the car spun out at high speed; I had an uncontrollable spin and the wheel fully locked. We lost aero performance due to some damage on the rear of the car, which caused the issue. The car span off and the situation was out of my hands unfortunately. It is a shame but, realistically, we wouldn’t have been fighting for Pole. The lap was coming together really nicely and I think I could have been P3.

“Now we just need to look ahead to tomorrow. The car is not that badly damaged, so there is hopefully not too much to change on it. We have good mechanics and I trust them to make the changes we need to be competitive tomorrow. The race pace has been a bit off and we have had a few limitations over the last few races, but we will have to see how we go tomorrow.”

Isack Hadjar, 8th, 1:06.632

“In FP2, I didn’t feel happy with the set up of the car but in FP3 I did from the very first lap, so I knew it would be a better day straight away. Halfway through qualifying I was on a bit of a plateau performance wise, which we corrected for that final lap, which I’m pleased with, so we did well there. The guys did a good job progressing and bringing upgrades this weekend and I extracted all I could from the car, but we had a few deployment issues when it mattered, so  the result doesn’t show its full potential. I think we should’ve been higher up the grid today, but tomorrow should be interesting with strategy.”

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“The most important thing after this eventful qualifying session is that Max is okay. He delivered an excellent first run in Q3, and his final run was very fast until he lost the car in turn 9. The dynamic of the incident was quite unusual, and we lost aero performance on the rear of the car and it gave Max no chance to survive. As a Team we take full responsibility for it and apologise to him.

“Not sending Max out for a second run in Q2 was certainly a close call, but we knew we had to take some risks after deciding to approach qualifying with only three new sets of Softs to give ourselves more strategic options for tomorrow.

“Once again, Isack has put together a very strong weekend so far, continuing to build confidence with every session. He kept improving throughout the weekend and delivered another solid qualifying performance.

“With any significant upgrade, it is never simply a case of plug-and-play. The real challenge is to understand the package, identify its optimum operating window and maximise its potential over the course of the weekend. We are still learning but today was an encouraging first step. The improved pace we had demonstrated the progress we have made with the package we have brought to Austria.

“A huge thank you to everyone back at the factory. This large upgrade package, covering many aspects of the car and PU, is the result of the hard work across the entire team. Seeing that effort reflected in our competitiveness today is a well-deserved reward for everyone involved.

“Our full focus now turns to tomorrow. Another extremely hot race awaits us, and it will be interesting to see how we perform in these conditions.”

McLaren

Not to be for McLaren, whose form faded in Qualifying. Norris picked up some damage in Q1, but the team were able to fix that quickly so his Q2 and Q3 laps were unaffected. Both drivers made it to the top-10 shootout with relative ease, but once there they could not find the pace to challenge for the first two rows. Norris wound up winning the intra-team honours, but there was just 0.009s between the duo in the end as both extracted everything they could from the MCL40.

Lando Norris, 6th, 1:06.502

“Overall, it’s been a good day, and P6 is a result we aren't too far away with. It’s easy to look at the practice times and hope for more, but we know the cars ahead are strong as we’ve seen throughout the season. Realistically, this is probably where we currently are in the pack, but we have our strengths in the package that we’ll look to exploit, and we're close enough to be in the fight tomorrow.

“The race is going to be incredibly hot, and tyre degradation will be a major factor, much like it was in Barcelona. A lot can happen with strategy and pit stops, but if we can manage the race well and take advantage of any opportunities, we’ll be in condition to secure a good result.”

Oscar Piastri, 7th, 1:06.511

“P7. Today’s result feels like a realistic reflection of where we are at the moment. We did a good job of maximising our package, and the lap times between myself and Lando have been incredibly close all weekend, which suggests we extracted nearly everything we could from the car. Unfortunately, we're just missing that final bit of pace compared to our closest competitors. We can see Mercedes has an edge, and Ferrari are strong, so we know the areas we need to improve.

“Looking ahead to the race, it will be hot, so tyre management will be absolutely key, especially as the competition around us will be very tight on race pace. We will analyse everything overnight and see what we can do strategy-wise. We’ll give it our best and see what we can achieve.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“Today's Qualifying result of P6 and P7 is a fair representation of where we stand at the moment. Lando and Oscar drove very well to extract that performance, but we are under no illusion that we have a gap to Mercedes and Ferrari. Our focus is clear: we need to continue the hard development work to add those crucial few tenths of a second in performance. We know we have to improve, particularly in aerodynamics and tyre exploitation, and this is a work in progress at McLaren.

“We are looking forward to the race and believe it is still a good position from which to fight for a strong result. The grid is incredibly tight, so tyre degradation and strategy will be significant variables that we will aim to exploit. While a victory may be out of reach on pure pace, we are confident in the work happening back at the factory and believe it's a matter of time and patience before we are consistently fighting for Pole positions and wins.”

Racing Bulls

Racing Bulls looked the midfield team most likely to make Q3 in Austria, and so it proved with both drivers getting into the top 10. Once there, they only had one new set of softs to play with. Both drivers were ahead of Verstappen on track and thus able to set their final lap times, with Lawson beating his team mate by just 0.052s. A double point score tomorrow would certainly help Racing Bulls in their pursuit of Alpine in the Teams’ Championship.

Arvid Lindblad, 10th, 1:07.007

"It was a positive Saturday. The team has done a really great job once again by giving us a fast and competitive car. It's nice to see both cars in Q3, it's a good team result, so massive credit to them. Overall, my last push lap was not that bad. There was a tenth and a half more if I'd have done everything perfectly, but considering where we were at the beginning of the weekend, it's not a bad place to start the race. I'm confident going into tomorrow; we all expect high temperatures again, so the tyre degradation will play an important role in the race but hopefully not as aggressively as it did in Barcelona."

Liam Lawson, 9th, 1:06.955

"It’s been a very good weekend so far with both cars making it into Q3. The car has felt strong across all sessions, and I’m really happy with the work everyone is doing, both here at the track and behind the scenes. A few teams arrived with upgrades this weekend, so we knew it was going to be a real challenge and it was still incredibly close, but to come out on top of the midfield is a really strong result. Tomorrow is going to be a tough race and temperatures are expected to be high. It probably won’t be quite as demanding on the tyres as Barcelona, but degradation will still be a factor with how much we’re sliding around. We will work overnight to make sure we are in the best position to hopefully score points.”

Mattia Spini, Head of Trackside Engineering

“Overall, it has been a positive Saturday for the team here in Austria. In FP3, we chose to run two new sets of Soft tyres, while saving an additional Medium for the race, in line with the approach taken by most of our competitors. The session ran smoothly and both drivers were reasonably happy with the balance of the car, although we could see there was still some lap time to find, both through setup optimisation and driving refinement.

“Ahead of Qualifying, we made some relatively small setup changes on both cars, with the aim of improving the balance through the corners and giving the drivers a more consistent platform. With high track evolution and driver progression expected, we elected to use two new sets of Soft tyres in Q1 to make sure we progressed cleanly into Q2.

“In both Q2 and Q3, we used one scrubbed and one new set of Soft tyres. Both cars made it through to Q3 and finished ahead of the rest of the midfield, which is a strong result and reflects a well-executed session from the team.

"Our focus now turns to tomorrow's race. We are expecting some of the highest track and ambient temperatures of the season, which will create several challenges. Good preparation overnight will be crucial to make sure we are in a position to fight for points.”

Alpine

Gasly impressed in FP3 and appeared to be fighting with the Racing Bulls cars for the Q3 berths. Despite improving with his final flying run, he couldn’t do quite enough to get through, missing out by four hundredths of a second to Verstappen. The Frenchman sounded disappointed on the radio, but he turned a Q2 exit into a P7 finish in Barcelona so all is not lost. Colapinto also exited in Q2, unable to extract the same sort of pace from the car as his team mate.

Pierre Gasly, 11th, 1:07.223

“We really tried to get the best result today, but I knew it was going to be tight. The first lap in Q1 was a good one, which allowed us to keep a second new set of tyres going into Q2 and give us the best shot at getting into the top 10. My last lap in Q2 really felt like a good one and, crossing the line, I thought this is the lap that gets me through but it wasn't quite enough. I'm confident there wasn't that much more in it and the Racing Bulls seem to be a bit faster this weekend. If we could have qualified in front of one of them, it would have been a bonus. I must say, I'm pleased with the step we made from yesterday, we've felt a lot stronger so I'm optimistic for tomorrow. The battle is really with the Racing Bulls and I'm hoping to get one of them at the start. Yesterday, in terms of tyre degradation, it felt pretty good and on Sundays, we seem to make a bit more of a step, so it'll be a nice fight and hopefully we're in a position to score points.”

Franco Colapinto, 16th, 1:07.894

“It wasn't the best result for us in Qualifying today, as we didn't really put a competitive lap together in Q2 and weren't able to show what we were potentially capable of. The car felt a bit better this afternoon and felt like it had improved from the morning's session, where we struggled to find the right balance. The car still felt unpredictable when pushing and trying to find the limit, which you need to around here, and leave nothing on the table. With the short track and very small gaps between teams, you have to push hard otherwise you can find yourself three or four places down the order. Ultimately, that's what happened on my final lap in Q2, where I pushed at the start of the lap and tried to carry more speed into Turn 1 and had a big snap. I went off track and aborted the lap. It's a pity we couldn't complete a final push lap and give ourselves the opportunity to start higher up tomorrow. The car tends to feel stronger in the race on high fuel and hopefully we can move forward and challenge those immediately ahead of us.”

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director

“We can't be fully satisfied with the result and how it went today, as the target every weekend remains to get both cars into the top 10 and be in a strong position to fight for points in the race. I think with looking at the pace of the Racing Bulls today, we couldn't really compete with them, at least over a single Qualifying lap, and ultimately, it's probably a fair outcome and reflection of where we are at this track in these conditions. You could see both drivers were really pushing to get the most out of it. Pierre did a good job and came close to pipping Max [Verstappen] to make it into Q3, but you could also see with the behaviour of the car it wasn't a comfortable ride and moving around a lot. The same can be said for Franco who was showing good pace and had a big snap and moment into Turn 1 on his final lap in Q2. We're still learning about the new parts and trying to extract the most from them. We saw from Friday and previous events, we can be more competitive in the race and aim to make forward progress in the Grand Prix tomorrow.”

Audi

Audi lost both cars in Q2 in Spielberg, with Bortoleto getting the beating of his team mate. They remain in the thick of the midfield fight, but have not managed to get on the pace of Racing Bulls or Alpine here. Nonetheless, in what is forecast to be a hot race, there will be plenty to play for on what could be an attritional afternoon – but first up for the team will be working out how to get off the line better than they have of late.

Nico Hulkenberg, 14th, 1:07.611

“It’s been a challenging weekend so far. Around here the margins are always incredibly small, and I just didn’t quite find the rhythm with the car in qualifying. On a circuit like this, that makes a big difference. This circuit hasn’t suited us quite as well as Barcelona, and we know there are still areas we need to improve.

"Looking ahead to tomorrow, I’m more optimistic. Our long-run pace looked more encouraging than our qualifying pace, and with the temperatures expected to stay high, tyre management and reliability will be key. There should still be opportunities if we execute a clean race.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, 12th, 1:07.293

"I'm really happy with my lap today, and in general with how the weekend has gone so far. We may have missed out on the top ten, but I feel that qualifying lap was as close to ideal as it could have been, and the pace we've had across every corner was very encouraging. I hadn’t been able to put the car in a comfortable window in the last few races, but it seems like we've gone in a different direction here: the upgrades we are bringing this weekend seem to be working in a way that suits us better.

"Everyone has been working incredibly hard, both at Hinwil and Neuburg, together with the trackside team, and it's nice to see that effort paying off. Hopefully, this is a step in the right direction, and we can keep building our confidence from here. Now, the focus is on tomorrow's race, bring the confidence back up and start building from there."

Allan McNish, Racing Director

"While we didn’t get a spot in the top ten, I want to give credit to the drivers and the engineers today as I think we realistically delivered the maximum the car could offer today. Gabi extracted the most from the car with his final lap in Q2: it was a very neat and tidy lap, but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough to progress into Q3. From a race perspective, though, it still gives us a solid starting position.

“For Nico, it was a slightly more difficult session. He pushed his car to the limit in trying to get every little bit of performance out of it, and being so close to the edge ultimately left him in P14. We have shown encouraging long-run pace throughout the weekend, so there is still plenty to fight for in the race, even if the hot conditions are set to provide another challenge.”

Haas

Haas had a quietly productive Friday, but Saturday was harder going. Bearman had looked in the mix for the top 10 at times in practice, but neither Haas driver had the pace to fight for Q3 in the end. Bearman was 13th, unable to get the better of his midfield rivals Alpine and Audi, and Ocon was a couple of places further back as Haas continue to search for the form they enjoyed at the start of the season.

Ollie Bearman, 13th, 1;07.523

“On one hand, I’m happy with my performance as I did a great lap in Q1, and I felt like I did the same in Q2. I don’t think there was much more left in the car, and that’s a satisfying feeling for a driver, but my bigger feeling is one of disappointment. In the last five races, this is the best feeling I've had in the car with how it drives, yet our competitiveness is still the same. I always go into qualifying thinking that if everything goes well, and I do a mega lap, I can make some type of miracle happen and get into Q3, but today we showed that despite all of that, we were nowhere near.”

Esteban Ocon, 15th, 1:07.817

“It was a very good lap to get into Q2 after the team put in an amazing effort to change many parts on the car overnight. We're still struggling with a few issues that we need to look into, as we don't really know why that's the case, so we need to investigate it further. I hope it won't give us a hard time in the race tomorrow, but I trust the team to fix it as soon as possible, as it's been quite difficult out there.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“I think operationally, like yesterday, we did a good job trackside. Ollie’s lap in Q2, that’s about all we had today. The team has done a good job on the set-up, and Ollie’s done a good job in getting everything out of the car, with Esteban very close as well. It’s good that we got everything out of the car, but P13 and P15 are not where we want to be. Our competitors have improved their cars, so we must improve ours as well. The positive is we were good operationally, and that has been a focus for us, but we need to improve the baseline speed of the car.”

Williams

Williams had a difficult weekend in Barcelona-Catalunya last time out, and on current form it seems the track in Austria does not suit their car either. Albon has struggled from the word go here, and could not escape Q1 in Qualifying. Sainz perhaps would have had he not had a very messy final corner on his last lap in Q1. That cost him some time, and let Ocon off the hook – the Frenchman scraping through ahead of Sainz in the end.

Carlos Sainz, 17th, 1:08.252

"Whilst it’s been a tough weekend, I’m very happy with my last lap in Q1 and nearly made it through to Q2. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have enough pace. We’ve been struggling with grip and the weight of the car all weekend and when you combine it with the heat, it’s just too many issues to move up the field. A lot of teams have also brought upgrades and we’re really noticing it this weekend. Hopefully this is a low point and from Silverstone onwards we return to the improvement path. Looking to the race tomorrow, it’s going to be a struggle, but reliability is always a factor at play, so we’ll do the best we can and keep an eye out for any opportunities."

Alex Albon, 18th, 1:08.509

"A frustrating Saturday, but there's not much more we could have done today. We've made positive changes throughout the weekend between sessions, but unfortunately we just don’t have the pace. In turns 1-4 we can fight in the midfield, but through the high-speed corners the gap is exposed, which is an extension of what we saw in Barcelona. We spent FP3 focused on long runs and race pace rather than one-lap pace, but we did expect more from this weekend, however I think with the heat it’s exposed us more. Hopefully we can recover some positions in the race with this track having overtaking opportunities, so we'll try to exploit them."

Cadillac

Qualifying was encouraging for Cadillac, who improved considerably after their very difficult Friday. Both cars were able to run issue-free, with Perez once again just about beating his team mate, although Bottas got close. But it would have been encouraging for the team to be around a second ahead of Aston Martin, and only a few tenths behind Williams in challenging conditions.

Sergio Perez, 19th, 1:08.945

“It was tricky today given we were on the back foot after the stoppages yesterday, but generally speaking we maximised what we could. We focused on race preparation instead as we know how important and tricky tyre degradation will be around here tomorrow. It’s super close out there but I feel like we have good race pace so hopefully this approach will pay off.”

Valtteri Bottas, 20th, 1:09.030

“There was a bit more in it today. I was a bit too close to Checo on the last run with traffic so there were probably a couple tenths more that I missed out on. Despite the issues we faced yesterday, we managed to put the car in a decent window with the upgrades working. We know we need to keep chipping away at the gap to the midfield. Tomorrow will be a tough test with the high temperatures but let’s see what we can do.”

Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal

“It was always going to be a tricky day after the loss of track time yesterday. It probably cost us a lot of lap time as we couldn’t really optimise preparation for Qualifying. Nevertheless, we are in relatively good shape for the race tomorrow as we worked a lot on understanding tyre behaviour. This will be crucial in the high temperatures over the short lap. We will stay focused and keep working hard as we look to make as much progress in the race as possible.”

Aston Martin

Aston Martin have struggled with cooling at this event, which seems to be compromising their running. Neither car could get into a real battle with their Cadillac rivals, and the team locked out the last row on the grid. Alonso beat Stroll, with the Canadian aborting his final lap and pitting in Q1.

Fernando Alonso, 21st, 1:09.942

“The result is where we expected to be, but I feel we have taken steps forward so far this weekend. Since FP1 yesterday, the predictability and consistency across the car has felt better. The team has worked hard to make improvements where we can, and we will continue working in preparation for tomorrow. It will be tough, but I’m happy with the progress we have made.”

Lance Stroll, 22nd, 1:10.363

“We probably could have gotten a bit more out of Qualifying today: I lost time on my final lap in Q1 with a lock-up in Turn 4 and we had to abort the lap. It’s the same car we have been dealing with since the start of the season, so we know where we stand. But we are all pushing as a team for improvements and that’s what everybody is focused on right now. We will see what we can do tomorrow.”

Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer

“Today’s Qualifying result reflects our competitive position. However, we still try to maximise our package and the drivers delivered as usual. The race will be challenging but we remain focused to extract what we can from the car, continue learning, and be strong operationally.”

Pirelli

Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli Motorsport Director

"Tomorrow once again looks set to deliver an interesting race from a strategic perspective. According to our simulations, two-stop strategies are the competitive options. As already seen yesterday, the Medium and Hard compounds exhibit similar degradation over long runs and can therefore be considered interchangeable, with a slight grip advantage for the yellow tyre. Starting on the C4, teams that still have two sets of Hard available could complete the race using both. Alternatively, those who have saved two sets of Medium may choose to run the C3 in the middle stint and fit a new set of C4 towards the end.

"Some teams also tested the Soft in long runs today, perhaps indicating a possible use at the start, taking advantage of the extra grip. Still considering a two-stop option, its replacement could come between laps 14 and 20, barring neutralisations, switching to Medium before finishing on Hard.

"There is, however, a three-stop option, again starting on the Soft, which, if well executed, could prove effective. By exploiting the strong undercut at Spielberg, some drivers may choose to anticipate their rivals with a very early first stop and then use all three available compounds over the remainder of the race.

"This strategy is around a couple of seconds slower when factoring in traffic and the overtaking required, but in clean air it is actually quicker than the two-stop. Some teams may therefore be willing to take the gamble. After all, the memory is still fresh of how Hamilton secured victory in Barcelona with a similar move."