Max Verstappen Qualifies P1 in Austria, Leclerc Hot on His Tracks

But Rome wasn't built in a day. Even with Vasseur's experience, it was unlikely that Scuderia Ferrari could have ironed out all their problems in months. Verstappen isn't phased by anyone in his pursuit of another World Title, although some competitors still have hope left by the end of the season. But we'll get to that in a minute. First, look at some historical facts about the Austrian Grand Prix, as it has been around for over a few decades.

Austrian GP History

The first Austrian GP happened in the '60s, but drivers competed on the Zeltweg Airfield. Lorenzo Bandini was one of the first official winners of the GP, scoring the victory for Ferrari. Ford-powered machines dominated the '70s, with legendary names like Emerson Fittipaldi and Carlos Reutemann, to name just a few. Alain Prost won three Austrian GPs in the '80s, while Niki Lauda also scored a victory at the Osterreichring, as it was called at the time.

Nigel Mansel was the last man to win here before a decade-long hiatus, as the event returned to Austria in 1997. Jacques Villeneuve won that event for Williams-Renault after a fierce battle against David Coulthard in his Mclaren-Mercedes. The British driver eventually won the race for the same team in 2001 after Mika Hakkinen had already brought home two victories for them.

Meanwhile, Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher delivered three wins for Ferrari before the race was again put on hold. In the new era of the Red Bull Ring, Mercedes has dominated the Austrian GP, with five victories scored by Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, and Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen won the 2018, 2019, and 2021 events, which has him tied with Alain Prost on a list of most successful drivers in the Austrian GP.

And he will probably shatter that record within the next 48 hours. Ferrari has only registered one success in the new era of the racetrack, as Charles Leclerc won the event in 2022. But that also happens to be the Scuderia's most recent victory in F1, which must be pretty painful for the Tifosi.

Free Practice 1

History lesson aside, this weekend includes the sprint format as well. And that means the program for day one was slightly different than usual. Drivers went through FP1 first, and anyone could have guessed that Max Verstappen would be the fastest driver of the session. After 30 laps, he recorded a fast lap of 1:05.742, 0.241 seconds faster than Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari.

They were the only two pilots of the session to dip below the 1:06 mark, as Charles Leclerc came in third with a fast lap of 1:06.012. After two consecutive podiums, Lewis Hamilton is back in shape this season, and he was fourth overall at the end of FP1.

Meanwhile, his teammate, George Russell, was only ninth on that list. With Sergio Perez in P5, Aston Martin had Lance Stroll in P6, and Fernando Alonso in P8. And Haas fans were probably ecstatic seeing Kevin Magnussen nudging between them with a fast lap of 1:06.497. Oscar Piastri was one of the most hard-working drivers of the session, having driven a total of 36 laps. And that diligence paid off, as he was the 12th fastest, while Lando Norris was the slowest driver on the grid.

Qualifying

But enough about the free practice session; let's look at how things went down in qualifying. After all, this would set the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix, so everyone was bound to fight hard for a good result. Once again, preliminary polls indicated Verstappen as the favorite for taking Pole Position this weekend. And by the end of Q1, it sure looked that way. He was already over half a second faster than his FP1 result, with a fast lap of 1:05.116.

As always, drivers fought it out until the last second of the session, with some barely making it through to Q2. Sergio Perez and Lando Norris had very similar performances, as they were only 0.02 seconds apart, sitting in P2 and P3. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were fourth and sixth, respectively, with Piere Gassly somehow managing to get in between them.

Lance Stroll was the last driver to be within less than 0.6 seconds away from the leader, as he had to settle for P12. As always, only 15 drivers will be able to move to Q2. And that left both of the Alpha Tauri pilots out of the game. Zhou, Sargeant, and Magnussen also didn't make it through.

But more shocking action was coming next, as the second part of the qualifying session saw three big names drawing the short straw. Sergio Perez had his fast lap deleted for exceeding track limits, and he was out of the game. George Russell had a rough session, too, as he was just 0.133 seconds below the line. It always feels sad to see Bottas steadily fading into oblivion after his previous years of good results in F1.

He didn't succeed either, joining Hulkenberg and Albon in watching the rest of the session from the sides. But focusing on the top of the list, Verstappen was again the man to beat, with Sainz and Norris following close behind.

Verstappen set the bar high in Q3 early on in the session, as he lapped the Red Bull Ring in 1:04.503 with eight more minutes to go before it was all over. He was already almost half a second faster than his best qualifying result at the 2022 Austrian GP. But he still had more room for improvement. By the end of Q3, he had set a fast lap of 1:04.391. Leclerc and Sainz had done their best to keep up with the Flying Dutchman but ultimately had to settle for P2 and P3.

Lando Norris will be fourth on the start grid on Sunday, while Lewis Hamilton will be fifth. Lawrence Stroll is pretty excited about his team's results this year, as Lance and Fernando Alonso will fight for a podium finish this weekend. P6 and P7 are a promising start for the event, but they must go through Lewis Hamilton first to fly back home with a trophy.

Predictions

Drivers will have to go through the Sprint Shootout before the Sprint Race, and both these sessions will be exciting to watch. But everyone is keen to see what will happen during the main event, as more points are at stake. A safe bet at this point would be that Verstappen will win his third F1 title this year. After all, he was at the top of the leaderboard, with 195 points in total.

Sergio Perez is "right" behind, having scored 126 issues. The surprise of the season is still Fernando Alonso, even after so many years of being part of the sport. He's third overall, and he's just nine points behind Perez. Hamilton is the last driver to have scored over 100 points this season, and everyone else seems to be miles behind. At least Mercedes can be happy about being P2 on the team's scoreboard, but Aston Martin is only 13 points behind.

Speaking of Ferrari, they will likely be able to go higher up than third this year, but it's still ongoing. After all, there are still 13 more races to go, and everyone will most likely be fighting until the last seconds of the championship. One could predict the outcome of the next few years by looking at the previous years of F1 racing. After all, Mercedes dominated the sport for seven years before making way for Red Bull Racing. And it doesn't feel like anyone is ready to dethrone Max Verstappen just yet. But we hope we're wrong about that; otherwise, things might get boring soon.