Max Verstappen took pole position in the speed classification for the 2024 Formula 1 Austria Grand Prix and, as expected, the war for P1 was intense.
Lando Norris and McLaren were at the top, but the Red Bull driver won again and once back we saw Mercedes ahead of Ferrari.
The big news about the script classification is the confirmation of Mercedes as the third force on the grid. The Silver Arrows are already ahead of Ferrari, with more disorders than good fortune since the Monaco GP. The functionality of the W15 has taken a step forward since Imola and the SF-24, on the other hand, has stagnated.
George Russell was the most productive in the war between the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers with a P4. Charles Leclerc will start 10th after having an incident with the anti-loss and not being able to set a time in SQ3. Carlos Sainz was fifth just ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who had to deal with Leclerc’s dirty air on his flying lap and failed to identify a clever sector 2.
But where is the real big difference between Mercedes and Ferrari?The answer lies in fast corners. Specifically, in the first and last two corners of the Red Bull Ring. The Ferrari rear had problems in the medium/high-speed corners, just like in Barcelona, where when the revised terrain was introduced, porpoises were reported due to increased air suction in the rear domain.
This difference between Mercedes and Ferrari is already recurring and is the true “biggest” difference between the Brackley team and the Scuderia. Other than that, the differences are really minimal, perhaps with a more direct impact on the part of the pilots themselves. But the truth is that we can now place Mercedes as the third force on the grid only behind Red Bull and McLaren.
On the other hand, in the fight for pole, as we already expected in our predictions, the war between Max Verstappen and McLaren was going to be a matter of thousandths of a second. And it was, although once behind Red Bull The driving force made the difference in taking P1. However, unlike other circuits, as has been the trend since some races, this time it turns out that the RB20 is impressive against the MCL38 at the Red Bull Ring.
The RB20 can give Verstappen the confidence to brake late and late directly from the MCL38’s greater cornering access and consequently greater acceleration out of corners. Norris had a top speed of 321 km/h on his SQ3 lap compared to Verstappen’s 324 km/h.
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In the track dominance graph we can see how, for example, despite a lower relative speed in Turn 1, Verstappen reaches the end of Sector 1 with a more sensitive speed and obviously makes a big difference attacking in Turn 9 and 10.
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