F1 Austrian GP qualifying briefing: Norris storms to pole ahead of Leclerc and Piastri

New York Times

a day ago

SPIELBERG, Austria — Pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix was Lando Norris' to lose.
In the two practice sessions he participated in, as well as Q1 and Q2, the Briton led the timesheets at the Red Bull Ring by at least a tenth of a second ahead of his McLaren teammate — the championship leader Oscar Piastri. Norris' pole position comes at a critical time, as 22 points separate the McLaren duo, and Norris crashed into his teammate last time out in Canada.
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Despite his practice pace and Q1 and Q2 leading times, a caveat hung over Norris. His confidence was evident around Red Bull Ring, but he still needed to avoid making mistakes when it mattered in Q3, as he has on many occasions to this point in the 2025 campaign. That would be the first step of his fight to close the gap to Piastri in the drivers' championship.
Norris nailed his first flying lap in Q3, setting a time 0.286 seconds better than Piastri. But Ferrari's Charles Leclerc suddenly split the McLarens, though was still 0.224 seconds behind Norris. Lewis Hamilton wasn't far off either at this stage — 0.065 seconds adrift of provisional third-place runner Piastri.
Norris sat on provisional pole and he then extended his lead on his final flying lap. He ended up a half-a-second quicker than Leclerc — a big margin on what is Formula One's shortest track by lap time.
'Thank you guys,' Norris said over his team radio. 'It's nice to see the old me back every now and then. Well done. The car was pretty damn beautiful.'
Piastri rounded out the top three, but was left to rue his starting position on the track ahead of the final Q3 runs. The Australian was following Alpine's Pierre Gasly through the final corners on his final warm-up lap when the Alpine spun ahead. Piastri had to back off and so never got to set a representative time on his final flying lap.
Piastri will lineup alongside Hamilton, while George Russell will share the third row with Liam Lawson.
This weekend marked the sixth time Gasly has made a Q3 appearance this season, all while Alpine sits 10th and last in the constructors' standings. He ended up qualifying 10th, after spinning, and will lineup next to the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, who qualified ninth.
In his first-ever Q3 appearance in F1, Gabriel Bortoleto qualified eighth and is set to start alongside Max Verstappen on Sunday. The Red Bull driver had run used tires on his first Q3 run, but when he switched to new softs he did not end up amongst the McLarens as he so often has previously in 2025.
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In Q2, the Ferrari duo and Alex Albon made the first initial runs, and Leclerc led Hamilton by 0.205 seconds. With 10 minutes to go, the rest of the garages emptied out as the others went to complete their first Q2 laps, and Leclerc found himself in a Racing Bulls sandwich with eight minutes to go — Lawson setting the fastest lap and Hadjar in P3 (though it was short-lived for the French rookie, who ultimately failed to advance to Q3).
But the championship frontrunners had yet to set their times, and Verstappen then bested Lawson's initial time by 0.145 seconds. The Dutchman, though, wasn't thrilled with his Red Bull. 'Car is completely undriveable,' Verstappen reported over the radio. 'I have no grip. It's even worse than before. I don't even know what to say, I have no grip low speed, medium speed, high speed.'
The McLaren duo, once again, then easily cleared the rest, but Ferrari came fighting back, both Leclerc and Hamilton going quicker than Verstappen but still a few tenths from Norris and Piastri. But a red flag then stopped the clock, as the grass at the start of the pit straight caught on fire with just under six minutes to go. According to the FIA, 'the grass fire was caused by a car going off track, rather than by sparks flying off from cars on track, as in previous cases.'
The biggest surprise by the end of Q2 was Bortoleto. The rookie advanced with a fifth-fastest lap in the middle session, marking the first time the Brazilian Sauber driver has made it into the top 10. Meanwhile, Gasly continued to nail his laps and set the sixth-fastest time in the session, while his teammate Franco Colapinto was knocked out after finishing P14. The other fallers were Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon and Ollie Bearman.
In Q1, McLaren's dominance was clear, with Norris continuing to lead the pack by the halfway point of Q1, having also topped FP2 and FP3. He set a lap time four-tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen with just over 10 minutes to go in the opening session, and teammate Piastri split the difference with around seven minutes left, just over three-tenths of a second off of Norris' time.
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With three minutes to go in Q1, Hülkenberg, Ocon, Stroll, Bearman and Alonso all sat within the drop zone, while the five drivers making up P10-P15 were Leclerc, Russell, Tsunoda, Lawson, Colapinto and Sainz. Just 0.024 seconds separated P15 and P16 at this point. Bearman rocketed his way out of the drop zone with around a minute to go.
With just a few seconds left, Russell had a 0.005-second gap to the drop zone, and while doing his final flying lap, Colapinto nailed his, which meant the Mercedes driver dipped into the drop zone. But Russell managed to fight his way out — setting a lap time that put him 0.011 seconds behind Antonelli. Sainz, however, could not – but was left feeling he had picked up damage on his Williams earlier in Q1. Tsunoda was eliminated despite setting a time closer to Verstappen's Q1 best than at any other point in their time as teammates at Red Bull since the Japanese Grand Prix.
Stroll failed to advance to Q2, despite The Aston Martin driver having strong practice outings this weekend: P13 in FP1, P4 in FP2 and P8 in FP3.
The entire grid was covered by less than a second at the end of Q1, showing just how fine the margins are here.
1. Lando Norris, McLaren
2. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
3. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
4. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
5. George Russell, Mercedes
6. Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
7. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
8. Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
9. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
10. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
11. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
12. Alex Albon, Williams
13. Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls
14. Franco Colapinto, Alpine
15. Ollie Bearman, Haas
16. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
17. Esteban Ocon, Haas
18. Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull
19. Carlos Sainz, Williams
20. Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber
(Top image: ERWIN SCHERIAU / APA / AFP / Getty Images)