The Williams’ of Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas locked out an immensely popular front row in Austria, turning the form book on its head and relegating Mercedes to highly unusual 3rd and 9th places. The Austrian fans gave Massa a standing ovation for his first pole position since Brazil 2008, the popular Brazilian also scoring Williams’ first pole since Spain 2012. Given all that Massa has suffered since his 2009 accident, and all that Williams has struggled with in the midfield for the last decade, there’s not a soul who’d begrudge the Grove outfit or its Brazilian hero their day in the sun.
Producing a lap of 1:08.759, Massa just shaded team-mate Bottas, who had previously held provisional pole thanks to a first run of 1:08.846. However, Bottas couldn’t improve on his second Q3 run, dropping a wheel into the dirt at a crucial moment to lose a vital couple tenths. Despite that, its still the Finn’s best qualifying performance to date.
Nico Rosberg couldn’t continue Mercedes’ dominance as the runs switched to super soft tyres, and will only line up 3rd, edging out the ever consistent Fernando Alonso.
Canadian GP victor Daniel Ricciardo hauled his Red Bull up to 5th, ahead of Kevin Magnussen in 6th and Daniil Kvyat in 7th, the two rookies impressing mightily on the back of their junior formulae experience at the Spielberg track. Kimi Raikkonen was an anonymous 8th.
The big news though was Lewis Hamilton’s disaster. The Mercedes driver clearly needed to bounce back from his Canadian disappointment, but it wasn’t to be – with his time on his first run disallowed for exceeding track limits, the Brit then locked the rears approaching turn 2 on his second lap, spinning off and losing any chance of setting a representative time.
Hamilton will at least start 9th, with Nico Hulkenberg also having his time disallowed and starting 10th as a result.
Rosberg earlier topped a Q2 session that claimed a number of big names. Sergio Perez fell just short in 11th, and was followed to the sidelines by Jenson Button, who had plenty to say about it over the team radio.
But the really big news was Sebastian Vettel getting eliminated in 13th at Red Bull’s home race. Not only is it another major embarrassment for the champion team and driver, but it’s now the 6th occasion in 8 races that Vettel has been out-qualified by team-mate Ricciardo.
Also eliminated in Q2 were the Lotus’ of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean, who will line up 14th and 16th, sandwiching Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso.
Hamilton had at least managed to top Q1 with a lap of 1:09.514, in a session plagued by disallowed laps as most of the field began to explore the track limits on the outside of turn 8.
With no major casualties, Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez will form row 9 in their Saubers, followed by Jules Bianchi and Kamui Kobayashi in 19th and 20th, with Max Chilton and Marcus Ericsson 21st and 22nd.
Chilton will actually start last due to his three-place penalty from Canada, with Perez losing five places and falling to 16th for his own Canadian penalty.
