Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes had a very mixed qualifying session on Friday in Austria, which was marred by the seven-time world champion’s teammate George Russell’s Q2 exit. Hamilton, however, is putting in extra hours to make sure that he can make the best of his starting position for Sunday’s race which is P5.
As expected, Max Verstappen was the fastest driver in Spielberg on Friday. However, the margin by which he got the pole position was just 0.048 seconds. The driver who pushed him to the very edge was Charles Leclerc with Carlos Sainz close behind him.
Hamilton and Mercedes will be disappointed by this. This is mainly because they thought that with their upgrades, they would be closer to Red Bull. However, Hamilton could muster only a fifth-place finish in qualifying, behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, whose upgrades were also playing strong dividends.
However, Hamilton is now desperate to make up for an underwhelming qualifying session as he looks to give his all and end Red Bull and Verstappen’s dominance.
Lewis Hamilton works extra hours to take the fight to Max Verstappen
Starting from fifth place on the grid won’t make Hamilton’s hopes of winning the Austrian GP easy, especially with the resurgent Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ahead of him. Still, Hamilton provided fans with an insight as to just how hard he was working.
On his Instagram account, Hamilton chose to upload a story, with a picture of the paddock at the Red Bull Ring. The paddock was completely deserted, with not a soul to be seen around. This is because it was well past 2:00 AM in Spielberg, and most people were getting some much-needed rest.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was up and seemingly working with his team (or alone) to make sure that he can improve his pace for the Sprint qualifying on Saturday, ahead of the main Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton and Verstappen’s teammates’ disastrous outing in Austria
Verstappen took his fourth consecutive pole position of the season with P1 in Austria. For his teammate Sergio Perez, however, the pressure keeps mounting. He failed to qualify for Q3 yet again, which disappointed team principal Christian Horner immensely, especially considering the fact that they have the strongest car.
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell didn’t fare much better. The Kings-Lynn-born driver struggled to find the pace throughout the session, and after scraping into Q2, could only finish P11. For both Perez and Russell, finishing in the top three looks extremely difficult, although Red Bull and Mercedes will be hoping for a miracle nonetheless.
Meanwhile, Hamilton, who has been working overnight in Austria, will be hoping to give it his all and end Verstappen and Red Bull’s incredible winning streak on Sunday.
