By Mark Gero
It looked like Ferrari would take pole Saturday in qualifying for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, but the Mercedes of George Russell, who needed a good result to stay in the fight for the world championship, made a dramatic final lap of a 1:06:113 to take pole at the Red Bull Ring, with Scuderia drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton occupying the next two positions.
Russell broke Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli’s domination in the morning’s third practice, and for a little while it looked like Russell would be further down in the grid. But Russell placed fourth in the second session and was the last car to cross over the line in the final period, when it looked certain that Hamilton, then Leclerc, had provisional pole. But coming into the next to last corner, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen slid off the track and smashed into the barriers, bringing out a yellow flag.
Russell, seeing this cautionary period, still had the fastest time, and went past Verstappen, and lifted off the throttle at the final turn, but still grabbed the quickest time of the day right at the final moment to give him another pole to his other list of accomplishments.
Antonelli meanwhile, had a quick time as well, had to lift off, and this ruined the Italian’s final lap, dropping him down to fourth overall. Verstappen, despite his accident, finished in fifth, with the two McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri taking sixth and seventh. Isack Hadjar was eighth in the second Red Bull with the last two positions in the top ten being Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls.
Ferrari argued afterwards that Russell did not lift off the throttle when Verstappen had his accident, but the Briton replied that he did lift off, seeing the caution when it came out. That protest was denied and Russell remained the pole winner.
“It was a single yellow as well, not a double, so it should be okay.” Said a relieved Russell afterwards. “It was a tough day, but it was so special to get that lap and everything felt so sweet, so really proud of the job we all did.”
Russell knows that the battle on race day will not be from his teammate Antonelli, but from the other drivers from the top teams. But it will also be from the hot weather, which has been in Europe for quite a few days now.
“It’s going to be very hot,” he added. “The Ferraris are looking incredibly fast – in the corners they’re the fastest team at the moment. They’re maybe a bit more draggy than us, which may help us to defend.
Tomorrow is going to be a big fight – obviously Kimi (Antonelli) in P4 is going to be super-fast, we know how strong he’s been, and Lando (Norris) and the McLaren’s so it’s game on from everyone.”
A good performance would be good for Russell, as he is now third in the world championship with plenty of races left to run.
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