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Sunday 9 July 2017

Austria GP: Bottas on Pole, Hamilton relegated to 8th after grid penalty

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas claimed his second pole position in Formula 1, beating Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel by 0.042s in qualifying for the Austrian GP.


Austrian GP: Bottas beats Vettel to pole by 0.042s

Teammate Lewis Hamilton finished a tenth and a half adrift in third and is thus set to start eighth as he will be taking a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Bottas, whose maiden F1 pole had come earlier in the season in Bahrain, crucially led Vettel after the first run of laps in the final qualifying segment, before yellow flags denied the pair and Hamilton the opportunity to improve.

The culprit was Romain Grosjean, whose Haas car slowed to a crawl midway through the lap through gearbox issues just as the leading trio had begun their final efforts.


Pole sitter Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Mercedes AMG F1 celebrates in parc ferme at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 8 July 2017. © Sutton Images

As such, the status quo was maintained out front, with Vettel's teammate Kimi Raikkonen forced to settle for best of the rest in fourth, half a second down on the German.

Despite having trailed Max Verstappen in Q1 and Q2, Daniel Ricciardo beat his Red Bull teammate to fifth place, as the Dutchman suffered a late off in the final segment at Turn 7.

Grosjean placed seventh, with Force India duo Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon in eighth and ninth, and Carlos Sainz making up the top 10 for Toro Rosso.

Q2: Hamilton elects for supersoft start

Bottas comfortably set the pace in the second qualifying segment, putting almost half a second between himself and the lead Ferrari of Vettel.


Pole siter Valtteri Bottas (FIN) Mercedes AMG F1 and Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 after Qualifying at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 8 July 2017. © Sutton Images

In third place, Hamilton was close behind the German despite being the only driver in Q2 to set his best time on the supersoft compound.

All the frontrunners comfortably made it through, but there was plenty of late intrigue in the segment, with Force India's Ocon improving late on to put McLaren's Fernando Alonso out of Q3.


Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes-Benz F1 W08 Hybrid at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 8 July 2017. © Sutton Images

The Spaniard, who had had an older-spec Honda engine fitted after Friday running, was also pipped by Nico Hulkenberg and will start behind the Renault man in 12th – with teammate Stoffel Vandoorne 0.13s adrift in 13th.

Sainz's Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat was only 14th, dropping three tenths to the Spaniard despite having outpaced him in all three practice sessions earlier in the weekend.


Fernando Alonso (ESP) McLaren MCL32 at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 8 July 2017. © Sutton Images

Kevin Magnussen didn't get to turn a lap in Q2 at all after the suspension on his Haas VF-17 snapped midway through the first segment, forcing him to trudge back to the pitlane on three wheels.

His laptime was already good enough to avoid elimination in Q1, but the Dane did not reappear on track afterwards and will start 15th.

Q1: Early exits for Williams duo

The first qualifying segment ruled both Williams cars out of contention, as the FW40 struggled at the venue where the Grove-based team scored its most recent pole back in 2014.

Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll were only 17th and 18th respectively on the timing screens, the former denied a late opportunity to escape elimination by a mid-lap sideways moment.


Esteban Ocon (FRA) Force India VJM10 at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 8 July 2017. © Sutton Images

Ahead of both but also exiting in Q1 was Renault's Jolyon Palmer, demoted to 16th by Vandoorne by the margin of 0.029s shortly before the chequered flag.

The two Saubers made up the grid, with Marcus Ericsson qualifying ahead of Pascal Wehrlein for the second time this campaign.


Sebastian Vettel (GER) Ferrari SF70-H at Formula One World Championship, Rd9, Austrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Spielberg, Austria, Saturday 8 July 2017. © Sutton Images

At the other end of the classification, Hamilton had beat Raikkonen by 0.084s to top Q1, the pair running ultrasofts as their teammates opted for the supersoft compound.


Raikkonen himself had begun the session on supersofts, but opted for a second run with a different tyre set when he found himself shuffled down to 11th.


Cla
#
Driver
Chassis
Engine
Time
Gap
km/h
1
77
Mercedes
Mercedes
1'04.251
241.938
2
5
Ferrari
Ferrari
1'04.293
0.042
241.780
3
7
Ferrari
Ferrari
1'04.779
0.528
239.966
4
3
Red Bull
TAG
1'04.896
0.645
239.534
5
33
Red Bull
TAG
1'04.983
0.732
239.213
6
8
Haas
Ferrari
1'05.480
1.229
237.397
7
11
Force India
Mercedes
1'05.605
1.354
236.945
8
44
Mercedes
Mercedes
1'04.424
0.173
241.288
9
31
Force India
Mercedes
1'05.674
1.423
236.696
10
55
Toro Rosso
Renault
1'05.726
1.475
236.509
11
27
Renault
Renault
1'05.597
1.346
236.974
12
14
McLaren
Honda
1'05.602
1.351
236.956
13
2
McLaren
Honda
1'05.741
1.490
236.455
14
26
Toro Rosso
Renault
1'05.884
1.633
235.941
15
20
Haas
Ferrari
16
30
Renault
Renault
1'06.345
2.094
234.302
17
19
Williams
Mercedes
1'06.534
2.283
233.636
18
18
Williams
Mercedes
1'06.608
2.357
233.377
19
9
Sauber
Ferrari
1'06.857
2.606
232.508
20
94
Sauber
Ferrari
1'07.011
2.760
231.973


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