29/06/2024
NEWS STORY
George Russell qualified third and Lewis Hamilton P5 for tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix. That came after both drivers battled hard during the morning's F1 Sprint.
Having started in P4 and P6 for the 24-lap Sprint, George lost a place to the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz on the opening lap. His pace enabled him to regain the position though as the Sprint wore on; Lewis was able to harry Sainz throughout but unable to claim P5. P6 did enable Lewis to ensure this weekend became his 300th points scoring event in F1 from a total of 343.
The drivers made adjustments to the car ahead of Qualifying and both Lewis and George progressed through to Q3. Both improved on their final efforts, crossing the line in P4 and P6. This became P3 and P5 as the McLaren of Oscar Piastri lost his best lap time for a track limits violation.
Just 0.185s separated the McLaren of Lando Norris in P2 to Lewis in P5, highlighting how close the battle is. George and Lewis therefore head up the second and third rows of the grid respectively tomorrow for the 71-lap Austrian Grand Prix. That is the third race weekend in a row that the team has had a car qualify inside the top-three.
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.
Check out our Saturday gallery from the Red Bull Ring here.