Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton secured pole position for the second Formula 1 race of the year in the rain of Spielberg. The English world champion gave the competition no chance in qualifying. Hamilton distanced Max Verstappen in second place in the Red Bull, McLaren man Carlos Sainz came third. The Englishman drove to his first pole of the year, the 89th of his career. He was 1.2 seconds ahead of the second-placed Verstappen.
Sebastian Vettel did not follow in the Ferrari. After eleventh place a week ago, it was only enough for the German to be tenth. He was almost 2.4 seconds behind Hamilton. Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc starts the race on Sunday (3 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: RTL, Sky) directly behind.
The drivers had to do without a last warm-up due to the heavy rain. The final training was canceled for security reasons. The qualification also threatened to fail at first, but was only released after a 46-minute delay. “Austria is always a challenging course when it comes to the weather,” said Formula 1 sports director Ross Brawn. “But we had to deal with such conditions before.”
“Always thankful for rain”
The rain also troubled the drivers in the race itself. Water was partly on the track, the view was severely restricted in the heavy shower. “We could barely see what was happening before us. But I love these days, I’m always thankful for the rain,” said Hamilton.
It quickly became clear which cars were safely on the street. Hamilton and Bottas, Verstappen and the McLaren duo Sainz and Lando Norris took turns in the lead in the first session, while Ferrari had major problems: Vettel only qualified eleventh for the Q2, Leclerc only 13th.
Vettel and Ferrari fight for the connection
Alexander Albon in the second Red Bull fell significantly against team-mate Verstappen and only started from sixth on Sunday. The 24-year-old is currently occupying the cockpit at Red Bull, which Vettel would like to have after leaving Ferrari from 2021 – but that will only be possible if Albon falls significantly short of expectations this season. At the first Grand Prix of the year in Spielberg last weekend, Albon failed with technical problems.
Heavy rain set in again in Q2, the Ferraris fought hard for the connection – and unlike in the opening race last weekend, Vettel narrowly made it into the final section in tenth, while Leclerc failed in eleventh. “The car is hard to drive,” Leclerc sparked to the pits.
His colleague Vettel said in frustration after the race: “We weren’t fast enough to keep up.”
