Formula 1 returns to Austria for the first time in over a decade at the newly-christened Red Bull Ring. Would the namesake’s team uphold Red Bull pride on Qualifying day amidst the short and tricky track in the Alps? Or would the German Mercedes team continue their overpowering display of prowess? Come with me below the fold to find out…
Williams earn upstart lockout of front row with Massa-Botas 1-2, Rosberg salvages 3rd for Mercedes
Williams Martini Racing continued their big comeback season with a remarkable upset 1-2 Qualifying finish for the Austrian Grand Prix, with Filipe Massa earning Pole and teammate Valtteri Botas taking 2nd on the tight and twisty 4.2km Red Bull Ring track. The usually dominant Mercedes team had an off day. Nico Rosberg was only able to muster 3rd place on the grid while Lewis Hamilton fell out of contention after having a quick lap disqualified for exceeding track limits and then having his car snap around on his last hot lap with no time left to improve. Hamilton, trailing his teammate in the Driver’s Championship, will start a lowly 9th on Sunday, although to be fair it didn’t look like anyone could touch Williams today.
Ferrari had yet more mixed results with Fernando Alonso taking the 4th fastest time but teammate Kimmi Raikkonen only good enough for 8th. By now it seems clear that the Prancing Horse’s F14 T is simply not very good and is only able to compete for podiums due to Alonso’s supernatural driving skills.
The other big upsets were Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Jensen Button failing to get through to Q3. Both were out-qualified by their junior teammates, with Daniel Ricciardo, the Canadian GP winner 2 weeks ago, managing a strong 5th, and Kevin Magnussen taking 6th. It must have been even more galling for the 4-time World Champion to be outqualified by Daniil Kvyat of the junior Torro Rosso team (7th) on his sponsor’s home track adding yet another chapter of ingnominy to Vettel’s awful 2014 season. Force India’s perennial overachiever Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the Q3 finishers in 10th.
Top 10 Qualifiers here:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:10.292 | 1:09.239 | 1:08.759 | 19 |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1:10.356 | 1:09.096 | 1:08.846 | 19 |
| 3 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:09.695 | 1:08.974 | 1:08.944 | 17 |
| 4 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:10.405 | 1:09.479 | 1:09.285 | 25 |
| 5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:10.395 | 1:09.638 | 1:09.466 | 22 |
| 6 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:10.081 | 1:09.473 | 1:09.515 | 29 |
| 7 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | STR-Renault | 1:09.678 | 1:09.490 | 1:09.619 | 21 |
| 8 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:10.285 | 1:09.657 | 1:10.795 | 23 |
| 9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:09.514 | 1:09.092 | No time | 15 |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:10.389 | 1:09.624 | No time | 23 |
Race coverage begins tomorow at 7:30 AM Eastern and can be seen on NBCSports.