2020 Austrian Grand Prix: Qualifying Highlights

Oh, he's right in the gravel. Did he get away with that? Well, I wouldn't fancy being the car behind Kimi Räikkönen, because he's got a whole load of dust in his visor as Ricciardo dipped a tyre into the gravel there. We'll see how much time it may or may not have lost him. Verstappen's gone quickest through the first sector. Ricciardo goes eighth fastest, pushes Albon down to 11th. Kimi Räikkönen, only 18th as he crosses the line. Kevin Magnussen, only 16th as he crosses the line. Can't get out of that bottom five. George Russell pushed back into that bottom five once again. Now we're looking at Pierre Gasly, who's currently 10th fastest in the Alfa Tauri. We'll certainly hope to improve on that, does, by one place. Ninth fastest so far. Kvyat and Ocon and Leclerc and Albon all worried. Well, Leclerc's not, because he's just gone fourth fastest. Verstappen goes quickest overall. A 1.04.0 for Max Verstappen. Fastest driver on the track is Valtteri Bottas. Puts it a much better second flying lap to go second fastest overall. We're now on board with Nicolas Latifi in the Williams. His first ever qualifying session. He's going to end up right at the back, I'm afraid, in about six tenths of a second adrift as he crosses the line. And Lewis Hamilton follows him, goes third fastest overall. And Alex Albon stayed in the garage, and it seemed like not a bad idea in the end, because he saved a set of tyres and he is through to Q2. Well, that's what cost Antonio Giovinazzi any chance of making it out of Q1. So Giovinazzi out in Q1. Kevin Magnussen, who qualified in fifth last year in Austria, out in Q1 today. Nicolas Latifi, who will start his first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix in last place. They're all improving. Max Verstappen is out there and on the soft compound tyre as well, as Ocon rounds the final corner and crosses the line and stays, sadly for him, outside of the top ten. Lando Norris can't improve, stays third fastest. Lewis Hamilton can't beat his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who has the quickest time in this session. Carlos Sainz will be next to cross the line. Into the shade he comes, fifth fastest. That looks a bit ragged from Sebastian Vettel there as he crosses the line and he stays tenth fastest. How much danger is Sebastian Vettel in? Fiat can't get past him, only twelfth for him. Ricciardo next. They're not improving their times as you would normally expect as they cross the line. Leclerc stays ninth. Romain Grosjean is out, fifteenth only for him. Here comes Pierre Gasly, fastest first and final sectors of his session. Alex Albon goes third fastest, pushes Sebastian Vettel out of qualifying. Verstappen doesn't need to go any quicker. He is safely through. The big shock is that a driver who you'd expect to be in Q3 is out. It's not Verstappen. It's Sebastian Vettel. Are we safe? You are P10, P10. That's crazy. Seb Vettel, been told his services are no longer required and he was already struggling at Turn 1, wasn't he? But I don't think he lost too much time there. But the car, a little bit squirrelly. He took a very wide line in, got on the throttle early. So his lap was already slightly compromised. He missed out by a couple of tenths, Sebastian Vettel. And along with him, Pierre Gasly, Danny Kvyat, Esteban Ocon and Romain Grosjean, the five drivers knocked out in Q2. Sergio Perez has never started in the top three. He did qualify second in Baku at the European Grand Prix in 2016, took a gearbox penalty, a five-place grid penalty, so that's why he didn't start on the front row there. He's qualified fourth on five occasions. Could that be sixth today or could he go one better, I wonder? Opening skirmishes then of this Q3 session. Lewis Hamilton already a couple of tenths up on his teammate, Valtteri Bottas. And Lando Norris three-tenths back. Tenth back, Carlos Sainz on Valtteri Bottas. Good first sector that for Carlos Sainz. We carry on with the Flying Finn now. The corner he crashed at last year. The wind was severely gusting and he's had a very good middle sector of 27.9. But can his teammate match it? No. Hamilton two-tenths down in the middle sector. Look at this for an arrive-and-drive T9. Oh, I wanted to be on board and just see how the car flicked in there. Well, this is a nail-biter for a provisional pole here, because Valtteri Bottas crosses the line into the 1.02.9. New lap record for Valtteri Bottas here in the Red Bull Ring, and Hamilton can't match it. Right, the moment of reckoning then. Who's going to take the first pole of the 2020 Formula 1 season? Verstappen, third fastest, 1.03.5 for Verstappen in the Red Bull. DRS wide open then for Lewis Hamilton. Ricciardo's getting a nice slipstream from Hamilton. He's just a good distance behind, as is Alex Albon. Behind Daniel Ricciardo, get a bit of a slipstream up to three and then down to turn four. But let's see. You wonder how they've got the brake temperature and the tyre temperature to have confidence on such a slow outlap where they're waiting for each other. Oh, and someone's had a problem, and it's Valtteri Bottas going off into the gravel. Manages to hold it and now cuts the daisies in the field, but that's Bottas out of qualifying. And did everybody behind him... Hamilton might have got... Oh, he's really fighting together. Did everybody behind get a yellow flag and have to slow down? So Lewis Hamilton might have set his best middle sector, but he would have had to have slowed down if there were yellow flags out there. Hamilton rounds the final corner. Has he got enough pace to be able to take pole position? No, by 12 thousandths of a second, he misses out. Valtteri Bottas has an off, but as it stands at the moment, he's on pole for the Austrian Grand Prix. Norris up to fourth for McLaren. Great lap. Albon, fifth for Red Bull. Sergio Perez, sixth for Racing Point. Charles Leclerc, seventh at the moment. And that's probably a boost for him as well. Science stroll. Ricciardo complete the top ten. But Valtteri Bottas ended that not in the fashion that he would have wanted. Yes, guys. What's happened then, sir? Well, this is what happened. So it's on power then. He's run wide on power. It wasn't on the way in. It was beautifully under control on the way in. He picked up the throttle and the front just couldn't cope with it, and it drifted wide. Valtteri Bottas joins Niki Lauda, René Arnoux, Nelson Piquet. Oh, he's gone round as well, for good measure. He's not looking like a pole sitter right there, is he? No, he's not. But he will be shortly. Max Verstappen will start on the medium compound tyre, and that will bring a strategic interest to this race that Red Bull might just feel they've got a very, very good chance because he can go much longer in his first stint. Lando Norris, fourth in qualifying. Great performance from Lando Norris. His best ever Formula 1 qualifying ahead of Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo. Racing point, the two cars in the top ten.