Mercedes’ unbroken streak in qualifying in Formula 1 this season was preserved at a sweltering Austrian Grand Prix during a controversial conclusion to the session.
Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had surged to the front of the timesheets shortly before Max Verstappen—on a fast lap—lost control of his Red Bull through the penultimate corner and crashed.
George Russell was behind Verstappen on track and was on a fast lap – but for a brief period Race Control issued only single waved yellow flags.
Russell was thus able to lift off—showing that he adhered to the single waved yellow flags—and continue his hot lap, which was good enough for pole position despite the loss of speed through that section.
Kimi Antonelli backed off of his flying lap having mistakenly believed that double waved yellow flags were being shown.
NurPhoto//Getty Images
Title leader Antonelli thus wound up fourth on the grid, ahead of Verstappen—whose initial lap was fast enough for fifth—and the McLaren drivers of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Race Control did then issue double waved yellow flags for Verstappen’s accident, and per the rule book, any lap time set in such a scenario is deleted.
Russell said he did a “hundred meter lift” and “lost a huge amount of time;” race control noted the incident but deemed no investigation was necessary.
“Well, it is a corner where you can see quite a lot, and I just did a huge lift, and I was going to assess the situation as soon as I got to the corner, if the car was there,” Russell said.
“But as it was a single yellow, I was pretty confident there was no danger, and as soon as I turned into the corner, I already saw the green [light] up ahead, and I actually thought the car had continued, because I didn’t see the car [in the wall], I thought it was so far off the track, but I didn’t see the car whatsoever, and it was only when I saw the replay afterwards, I saw it was well off into the wall. I was glad common sense prevailed there.”
Russell enters the race in third place in the Drivers’ Championship, 50 points behind Antonelli, having not taken a win since the opening event of the year in Australia.
U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.