Despite finishing P4 in qualifying, luck has favored George Russell to put him one place ahead on the starting grid. That was courtesy of Oscar Piastri, who saw his lap time deleted and landed into P7 from P3. While Mercedes has found some pace coming into Austria, Russell is not convinced of the car’s ability to fight for the win.
The Silver Arrows found themselves on the right track to fight for podium finishes only recently. That was since they introduced several upgrades in Spain.
They are, however, still far from aiming for a race win. Russell echoed a similar assessment during his post-qualifying interview, where he weighed his options against Lando Norris and Max Verstappen ahead. As quoted in a post on X, the Briton said,
“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.”
Russell: Either way, it is encouraging that this is the third race in a row that the team has qualified in the top-three.
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) June 29, 2024
Russell, in his realistic assessment, found the Ferrari drivers to be his real competition. Among them, Carlos Sainz, who will start right behind him in P4, is the biggest threat.
Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, starts in P6, a place behind Russell’s teammate, Lewis Hamilton. Their starting positions for the main race, coincidentally, are also their sprint race finishing positions.
Lewis Hamilton agrees with George Russell in his assessment for the Austrian GP
Hamilton failed to find the right balance in the car during the sprint qualifying session and also later in the sprint race. Despite making a few tweaks to the setup, the seven-time champion failed to get anywhere near the top three during the qualifying for the main race.
He is, however, optimistic about a podium finish with a few more tweaks. He too believes the Ferraris would be their biggest roadblock in that ambition.
Speaking with Sky F1, Hamilton said, “My race pace was pretty poor this morning but we have changed the car, so I’m hoping that it will be better tomorrow in race pace. We have gone up on rear wing, so yeah I’m hoping that we can lean a bit more on the Ferraris and try and go for a podium somehow“.
