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Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel misses the top ten in qualifying from Austria

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes apparently coped well with the Corona break in Formula One. After his victory in qualifying in Spielberg, Austria on Sunday (3.10 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: RTL and Sky), the world champion started the season postponed by almost four months. Hamilton missed the 89th pole position of his career because his team-mate Valtteri Bottas was 0.012 seconds faster.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen came in third place behind the Finn and Hamilton, who became world champion for the seventh time this season and can catch up with Michael Schumacher. In addition to Verstappen, who won in Austria in the past two years, Lando Norris is surprisingly a McLaren on the second row.

“Think we’re faster in the race”

For Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, however, it couldn’t have gone any worse. During the course of the weekend it had already indicated that the gap to the top teams had increased again since the test drives in Barcelona in February. The confirmation followed in the second qualifying section when Vettel failed to finish in the top ten drivers. Teammate Charles Leclerc was just tenth in the top ten – in the end, Monegassen jumped to seventh place.

Ferrari had decided to convert the SF1000 during the Corona break. However, because the factory had to close for two months in the meantime, the Scuderia did not have enough time and the converted car is only presented for the third season race in Hungary. Then the gap to Mercedes and Red Bull could already have increased significantly in the shortened season. “I thought we were a bit faster. The others were able to gain more than us. The last lap was not the cleanest, it was not good enough,” said Vettel at Sky: “I think we are faster in the race.”

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