He was starting to run out of pole positions. Three races in a row without starting in front of everyone was becoming too many. In Austria, on Red Bull’s home track, Max Verstappen didn’t want to leave any hope to his opponents. He took it all. Mini pole, sprint race and pole number forty of his career. The McLarens tried, both in the mini race and then in qualifying, but in the end Norris remained at 0”444 which on a 64 second track is a huge gap. Lando had had his chance in the morning during the sprint when on the fifth lap he had jumped in front of him at turn 3, but then he had made a mistake on the next corner (“I made a mess, I left the door open like an amateur”), ending up losing the position to both Max and Piastri. The Austrian weekend confirms that McLaren is the second force today (Piastri was demoted for exceeding the limits, but was third) and Mercedes always manages to put at least one car ahead of Ferrari.
The Scuderia is in crisis. He can no longer find the performance, even if there has been a small step forward since Friday. Sainz and Leclerc did well at the start of the sprint (5th and 7th at the end), they gained positions, but then they had to deal with a car that was too slow and bouncy. Carlos 4th and Leclerc 6th in qualifying however take away the smile. We worked on the SF-24 between the sprint race and qualifying and an improvement arrived even if then in the last run in Q3, Charles made a mistake: «In the fourth I delayed braking, in the sixth I did banzai and I gone into the gravel. I was wrong… but beyond third place… »). Verstappen was uncatchable, Norris too (0.133s behind Carlos), but Mercedes was within reach (only 11 thousandths between Russell and Sainz).
The race seems like a private conversation between Verstappen and Norris, with some chances for Lando if he is perfect and dares in the first few
turns. For Ferrari the maximum objective is the podium, but it is necessary not to miss the DRS train, and therefore stay glued at least to Russell and Hamilton. Hard times. How beautiful are the 24 hour long races.
Tv: Gp ore 15 Sky (18 Tv8).
