George Russell was able to snatch pole for the Austrian Grand Prix ahead of the two charging Ferraris on Saturday night (AEST).
This was thanks to Max Verstappen’s mistake, the Red Bull driver spinning off the track toward the barrier in the dying moments of qualifying, causing a yellow flag which means all drivers must slow down.
Max Verstappen crashed in the dying moments. Clive Rose
Russell’s timing initially wasn’t great as he came through the second-to-last corner only moments after the Red Bull driver veered off.
Initially, the paddock called a 1-2 result in the Ferrari’s garage favour, Russell then argued he lifted off the accelerator earlier than usual for the corner, saying his lap was still enough for first place.
The stewards agreed and deemed the incident needed “no further investigation”, keeping Russell on pole ahead of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. This result keeps Mercedes’ Formula 1 pole position streak alive.
“I was glad common sense prevailed,” Russell said of the steward’s ruling.
With a margin of 0.236 of a second over Leclerc despite lifting off, Russell will be a clear favourite to win for the first time since the season-opener in Melbourne.
Russell’s stellar teammate Kimi Antonelli backed off his last qualifying run, believing wrongly it was a double yellow and could only put himself in fourth place for the F1 race.
Verstappen’s earlier time was still good enough for fifth ahead of the McLaren’s of Lando Norris in sixth and Australia’s Oscar Piastri in seventh.
The key factor keeping Russell’s lap on the board was that there was a single, not double, yellow flag waving at the corner.
A single yellow means drivers need to be able to show they slowed down noticeably.
A double signifies more immediate danger, and in qualifying means drivers should abandon any attempt at setting a competitive lap time.
“I didn’t even see the car because the runoff is so far and I think in that instance a single yellow was correct because a double yellow is immediate danger,” Russell explained in his defence.
Max Verstappen will start in fifth after aborted qualifying lap. Marcel van Dorst
He argued it was the right call because Verstappen’s car was on the other side of a gravel runoff area, meaning Russell didn’t risk potentially hitting the wreckage.
Red Bull took the “full” blame for the crash of their champion, team principal Laurent Mekies admitting Verstappen had “no chance to survive”.
“He delivered an excellent first run in Q3, and his final run was very fast until he lost the car in turn 9,” Mekies said.
“The dynamic of the incident was quite unusual, and we lost aero performance on the rear of the car, and it gave Max no chance to survive.
“As a team, we take full responsibility for it and apologise to him.”
– with AP