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Russell moves up to 11th … and Sainz and Tsunoda are on the brink of going out in Q1 while his teammate is in ninth.
Lawson moves up to third! What a run from him. Tsunoda is now in the drop zone at 17th after Alonso moves up to 8th. Russell is also on the fringes in his Mercedes in 16th …
Sainz is now out of the drop zone but only just with a spot in 15th!
Hulkenberg, Ocon, Stroll, Bearman and Alonso are now in the drop zone.
Alonso and Sainz have put on some new soft tyres to try to find some speed.
Piastri goes into second after he recovers from that early mistake. Alonso and Sainz occupy the bottom two spots and risk their spot in Q2 if they don’t find some pace. A good lap from Bortoleto, who is now in fifth in the Sauber.
Piastri goes into the gravel on Turn 6 after turning wide which means he is doing a slow lap at the moment. Verstappen led for a few moments before Norris raced the four tenths faster.
Verstappen is out on the track as Hulkenberg leads with a time 1:05.681.
Ocon leads the pack in his Haas at the moment with a time of 1:05.745 just as the McLaren duo and Hamilton in the Ferrari opt to come out of the garage.
Qualifying begins
Here we go! Twenty cars are about to fight in Q1 for a spot in the next round. It has been looking good for McLaren, can they keep the streak up? Let’s see!
Qualifying delayed
Our start time of 3pm BST has been delayed by five minutes due to the delayed F2 race that had a red flag earlier this afternoon.
The former Ferrari chair Luca di Montezemolo has joined the board of McLaren. McLaren and Ferrari, the two oldest and most successful teams in Formula One history, have been rivals for decades and were involved in a notorious ‘Spygate’ scandal that erupted in 2007.
A filing with Companies House by Abu Dhabi-owned McLaren Group Holdings, which controls Woking-based sports car maker McLaren Automotive, registered Montezemolo as a director on Friday. The 77-year-old Italian joined Ferrari in 1973 as founder Enzo Ferrari’s assistant and became team manager in 1974, a year before the late Niki Lauda secured his first title.
He also presided over the Formula One team during a golden era when Michael Schumacher won five of his career seven titles between 2000 and 2004 and served as chair of Ferrari and parent FIAT. McLaren were stripped of all their championship points and fined a record $100m over a dossier of stolen Ferrari technical documents found in the possession of McLaren’s chief designer Both Ferrari and McLaren are under different management now, with Montezemolo resigning his roles at the Italian luxury sports car maker in 2014 and focusing on other business interests. Reuters
Verstappen was not able to keep up the pace today to match the McLarens but it would be foolish to rank the reigning world champion’s ability in qualifying. This is his stomping ground after all.
This may not be his best season but the talent is there, so much so, that Mercedes’ Toto Wolff has confirmed his team are considering a swoop for the driver.
Final practice results
Lando Norris laid down a marker ahead of qualifying by finishing fastest in final practice for the Austrian Grand Prix. Norris, who set the quickest time at the Red Bull Ring on Friday, was again the fastest man in the concluding running before qualifying.
Norris’ best effort was enough to see off McLaren team-mate and championship rival Oscar Piastri, who holds a 22-point lead in the standings, by 0.118 seconds.
Max Verstappen finished third for Red Bull, two tenths behind Norris, and a place clear of Charles Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the other Ferrari, 0.466 sec off the leading pace. George Russell, a winner last time out in Canada, took sixth spot. PA Media
Lando Norris has insisted he and McLaren will come back stronger after the British driver’s title ambitions took a blow when he had to retire at the Canadian Grand Prix having made an error in hitting his teammate Oscar Piastri on track.
Norris was challenging Piastri for fourth place in Montreal when he attempted to pass and made what he later described as a “stupid” mistake.
Norris immediately took responsibility for the accident after the race and apologised to Piastri and his team for his misjudgment.
Speaking before this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, the 11th race of the 24-meeting season, Norris confirmed he and the team engaged in extensive talks about the incident, with the British driver believing it had been a beneficial process.
Not the most joyful conversations but conversations that needed to be had clearly. Some very constructive things and in an unfortunate way but a good way I think many things have come out stronger than I would say they were prior to the weekend. Which you might not expect but is a good outcome. Through an unfortunate circumstance a lot has been learned and a lot of things have turned into being stronger than they were before.
Read more from Giles Richards at the Red Bull Ring below.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to qualifiers of the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.
The Red Bull Ring is a picturesque circuit that drivers find to be relatively simple. But it does come with some secret tough spots. The downhill braking zone at Turn 4 is a spot where so many drivers end up in the gravel. The track surface is quite old and highly abrasive, which teams will factor when picking their tires.
As it has been for most of the season, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris – both of McLaren – lead the driver standings with the defending champion Max Verstappen in third. Norris ended the final practice session at the Red Bull Ring in first, closely followed by Piastri.
Join me for the buildup and news before we get to the 3pm BST qualifiers. And, as always, feel free to send your predictions, questions and concerns via email.
