Austrian GP: Second Row Start for George in Spielberg, Lewis in P5

Solid qualifying result for the Team in Spielberg

The second day of the Austrian Grand Prix featured both the Sprint Race and Qualifying for the Grand Prix on Super Saturday. After George and Lewis had finished the Sprint in 4th and 6th place, the next session started straight away after a short break.

Between the Sprint and the start of Qualifying, the Team was able to tweak the set-up and, among other things, open up the bodywork a little more to improve the cooling for today and tomorrow.

With a track temperature of 47°C at the start of the session, we saw the highest temperature of the weekend so far.

George and Lewis completed two runs in Q1. First one on used Softs, then another on new Softs (Lewis) and slightly used Soft tyres (George). Both improved on their final runs and made it safely into Q2. P5 to P16 were separated by just two tenths.

After a few slight adjustments, it was time for Q2. Once again, both drivers completed two runs, but this time both on fresh Soft tyres. Both improved their times on the second attempt and entered Q3 in 3rd and 4th place.

George once again set an identical lap time to another driver, in this case Carlos Sainz, who set the time earlier and was therefore classified in P2.

Both were able to improve on their final runs and finished Qualifying in 3rd and 5th place, with both drivers making up one position because Oscar Piastri's lap time was deleted due to track limits.

George was half a second off Max Verstappen's pole time, while Lewis was just 0.052 seconds off his team-mate. The top five were separated by less than six tenths of a second.

The action continues on Sunday with the Austrian Grand Prix. The race starts at 15:00 local time (14:00 BST) and covers a distance of 71 laps (306.452 kilometres).

George Russell

We can be pleased with P3, and a second row start for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. The car has been feeling great which is fantastic to see given how hard the team has worked to bring our recent updates. We’ve got a real fight on our hands with those around us, in particular Ferrari. We look to still be slightly behind the McLarens and Verstappen, but things are moving in the right direction for us.

We made a few adjustments, including the wing level, after the Sprint. That should help with our tyre degradation tomorrow. We were happy to sacrifice a little of our single lap performance to help our race tomorrow. Verstappen and Norris do seem to have that edge on us so realistically, our race is likely with those behind us. It’s important that we don’t compromise our race too much battling with those guys but let’s see what happens. Either way, it is encouraging that this is the third race in a row that the team has qualified in the top-three.

Lewis Hamilton

The Sprint was a little frustrating. I was able to get close to the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz but wasn’t quite able to challenge him. We therefore made some changes to the car after the Sprint and that helped. We were able to improve its overall balance and that enabled us to make a step forward. My final lap in Q3 was decent although my middle sector was a little bit down. P5 was better than we managed in Sprint Qualifying though so overall, it was an OK day.

The adjustments we made to the car should help us in tomorrow’s race. I am therefore hopeful that we will have better race pace than we showed in today’s Sprint. It will be important to get past the Sainz if we are to be in the fight for the podium. Let’s see what we can do.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

It has been a solid day for us all in all, but also showed us what we are currently lacking to be able to race right at the sharp end. George and Lewis delivered strong performances in the Sprint – as usual, it’s not easy to make up places when everybody is on the same tyres, but George drove nicely to regain position on Sainz and finish P4, with Lewis just behind in P6.

We made some set-up changes for Qualifying to try and give the drivers a better-balanced car for tomorrow’s race. Like we saw yesterday, Max was untouchable in the high-speed corners in the second half of the lap, and the two McLarens remained annoyingly close but not quite within reach. Our drivers are separated by just six hundredths of a second – and there’s another car between them. We have inherited a position from Piastri, which puts both cars on the clean side of the grid for the start, and we hope to be able to race hard from there to score as many points as possible. The Sprint showed it’s very closely matched between the top four teams, and a tenth of pace at the right part of the stint can be decisive, so hopefully we can keep the positive momentum going in tomorrow’s Grand Prix.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We had a decent Sprint earlier today. It was good to be able to pick up some additional points over Ferrari and gain some good understanding of the long run ahead of the race tomorrow. Our pace was OK, but not quite on a par with the McLarens. We therefore made some changes for Qualifying that may have cost us a little bit this afternoon, but hopefully will put us in a stronger position tomorrow. We benefited from the misfortune of Piastri having his lap deleted which moved us from P4 and P4 up to P3 and P5. That result is another indication that we're heading in the right direction, even if the gap to Max today was larger than it has been in previous races. We’re looking forward to tomorrow’s race and hopefully we can challenge for the podium.

2024 Austrian GP Qualifying Result

1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:04.314	-
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:04.718	0.404
3	George Russell	Mercedes-AMG	1:04.840	0.526
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:04.851	0.537
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG	1:04.903	0.589
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:05.044	0.730
7	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:05.048	0.734
8	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1:05.202	0.888
9	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas	1:05.385	1.071
10	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:05.883	1.569
11	Daniel Ricciardo	Racing Bulls	1:05.289	0.975
12	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:05.347	1.033
13	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:05.359	1.045
14	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	1:05.412	1.098
15	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:05.639	1.325
16	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:05.736	1.422
17	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:05.819	1.505
18	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	1:05.847	1.533
19	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:05.856	1.542
20	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	1:06.061	1.747

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