Austrian Grand Prix: Bottas grabs pole position

The Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas won the pole position for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at Red Bull Ring. The Finn did a great job from the Q2 and with a bit of luck won the pole position for the second time this season.

The first qualifying round was shocking for the Williams team after both Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll were eliminated what was a huge disappointment after good performances in Baku. Sauber drivers Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein also failed to progress in Q2 while the last who was eliminated after the first round was Renault’s Jolyon Palmer. At the same time, Lewis Hamilton in Mercedes was the fastest with the result 1:05.064 what was 0.084s better than the result of Kimi Raikkonen.

Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, starts from P2 at Red Bull Ring

Kevin Magnussen missed out Q2 due to mechanical troubles of his car and will start from P15 on Sunday while the other four drivers who failed to progress into the Top 10 Shootout were Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Stoffel Vandoorne, and Daniil Kvyat. The fastest in this part of qualifying was Valtteri Bottas in Mercedes – 1:04.316 – what was 0.464s better than the result of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

The final qualifying session was stopped a bit earlier after Romain Grosjean’s Haas stopped on the track. Valtteri Bottas topped the standings at that point and won the pole position for the second time this year. Championship leader Sebastian Vettel will start from the second position, while Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo will occupy the second starting row.

Lewis Hamilton has been handed five-place grid penalty

Lewis Hamilton scored the third best result but will start from P8. Mercedes were forced to change the Briton’s gearbox ahead of the event and, as the previous unit had not completed six consecutive events, Hamilton was penalized with a five-place grid penalty.