Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Red Bull Ring, 2021

2021 Austrian Grand Prix grid

2021 Austrian Grand Prix

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Row 11. Max Verstappen 1’03.720
Red Bull
2. Lando Norris 1’03.768
McLaren
Row 23. Sergio Perez 1’03.990
Red Bull
4. Lewis Hamilton 1’04.014
Mercedes
Row 35. Valtteri Bottas 1’04.049
Mercedes
6. Pierre Gasly 1’04.107
AlphaTauri
Row 47. Yuki Tsunoda 1’04.273
AlphaTauri
8. George Russell 1’04.591
Williams
Row 59. Lance Stroll 1’04.618
Aston Martin
10. Carlos Sainz Jnr 1’04.559
Ferrari
Row 611. Sebastian Vettel 1’04.570
Aston Martin
12. Charles Leclerc 1’04.600
Ferrari
Row 713. Daniel Ricciardo 1’04.719
McLaren
14. Fernando Alonso 1’04.856
Alpine
Row 815. Antonio Giovinazzi 1’05.083
Alfa Romeo
16. Kimi Raikkonen 1’05.009
Alfa Romeo
Row 917. Esteban Ocon 1’05.051
Alpine
18. Nicholas Latifi 1’05.195
Williams
Row 1019. Mick Schumacher 1’05.427
Haas
20. Nikita Mazepin 1’05.951
Haas

Penalties

Sebastian Vettel – Three-place grid penalty for impeding Fernando Alonso

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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33 comments on “2021 Austrian Grand Prix grid”

  1. Imagine what Lando can do in that Red Bull

    1. @lums Or that Mclaren is very strong and Verstappen / Hamilton would have been winning in it.

      1. It’s really impressive, it’s hard to say since ricciardo isn’t up to par, but hamilton and bottas aren’t bad qualifiers, especially bottas is strong in austria, I have a hard time thinking they didn’t extract the max from merc’s pace in 2 drivers in 2 q3 laps each, so maybe the mclaren is occasionally really good in qualifying and can compete with top teams, just like ferrari on street tracks, we obviously don’t have a 2nd driver reference.

    2. Better imagine why THE GOAT was almost 0.3sec slower in a title fighting car, also why he’s not showing Senna’s helmet anymore!

      1. Who is the Goat? What has this got to do with Senna or 0.3

        Put Lando! in Perez Seat and watch him wash golden boy

        1. THE GOAT = HAMILTON. You must have heard of him.

          Norris is very good, but what you say is that he’s the best there is at the moment… by quite some margin. That’s almost impossible, McLaren built a good car and it’s obviously now that is to NOR liking 100%. NOR lost the PP on the last corner, before last corner he had few meters ahead compared to VER’s best lap.

    3. Norris got a tow from Verstappen in his p2 run.

    4. Hard to tell and we will never know since he is locked with McLaren for a while. One cannot assume that just because Lando is fast in that McLaren he will do well on RBR, two different cars and Lando might struggle to do the same in a complete different car. Lando is good where he is at.
      RBR is not a Merc, in fact I don’t think there is any other similar car on the grid that handles as the RBR. Unlike Williams or AM where drivers could jump to a Merc and do better (i.e. Russell).
      Paddock comment is that Lando got tow from RBR, so expect Lando to fall back after the first 10 laps.

  2. Mercedes are incredibly quick. Red Bull has no chance. It’s clear that Mercedes are the fastest car out there.

    PS: Red Bull will easily win tomorrow. Red Bull is definitely going to win the WCC, and it seems that the WDC is also theirs. Winning 5 qualifications & races in a row… That’s not a domination?

    1. Mercedes are still sandbagging. Lando in that Red Bull will wash Max

    2. Sviat, you can’t base your judgement on favourable races, the last few races included both street tracks and 2 austria, which have often been mercedes’ weaknesses the past few years, wait for silverstone before talking about red bull definitely winning title, that is a mercedes and hamilton track.

      1. You’re likely going to be waiting for a while if you think Red Bull won’t sweep Silverstone.

      2. @esploratore1 – In the previous years, Red Bull were also talking much about the favourable races. But they failed at those venues. Now they’re winning easily race by race. I highly doubt that anything will change come Silverstone. But we’ll see.

        Mercedes are clearly in troubles, they have no idea how to gain time to Red Bull. They’re looking for every bit of information (Hamilton and his engineer constantly talking about the times, speed, sectors and corners compared to Verstappen), but if the car is slow (compared to Red Bull), then it’s slow. The only chance they have if they bring a 3-4 tenths-worth upgrade to Silverstone.

  3. Embarrassing for Mercedes to lose to a PU-customer team car, but baffling how teams never learn from past errors.
    I wouldn’t be surprised if Seb got even 5 places, given the section of track.

    1. I don’t know what’s going on there. But one of them has 3 poles here. Something must have happened there at the end, but since they are both evenly matched, I think that is probably where the car is??

      1. I think so too, honestly was expecting them to jump norris and cut the gap a bit to verstappen on the 2nd lap, instead it was norris who at one point felt like he could get pole (s1 1 tenth faster).

    2. Why would they be embarrassed by a single race? Even Williams beat them in qualifying in this hybrid era. The embarrassment would be over a season and I don’t think McLaren are there yet.

  4. VET should be given P20 start. He was out there putzing around and didn’t make it to the line to start his lap in time. Just ridiculous.

    1. @jimfromus Not to mention slowed down between the last two corners, although other drivers also did, but not with impactful consequences on another driver’s flying lap.

      1. Most of them slowed there – Vettel was just last in line. He was being held up by everyone ahead of him.
        It’s not one person’s problem – it’s everyone’s problem.
        I hope they all get penalised.

    2. Unfortunately penalties don’t give the wronged driver the position back, alonso should’ve made it into q3 if not for that.

  5. I am a Mclaren fan but as we saw last weekend, Mclaren was set for qualifying pace. Ferrari was set for race pace almost reached Norris. We will see tomorrow if Norris can keep up with the front runners. Anyway, his lap today was perfect.

    1. That’s the impression I got too from ferrari, probably went for that following the struggles in the french gp.

  6. We’re watching the changing of the guard in real time. Max and Lando. Pierre with a sterling result with Yuki getting to grips in qualy. And George with what can only be described as a superlative performance.

    This has got to be the most exciting grid lineup I’ve seen in years and years. I’m excited for the future.

    1. @mouse_nightshirt Indeed that really is the new generation up there

  7. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    3rd July 2021, 15:14

    Mad impressed with Lando’s McLaren in 2nd – he came so close to taking pole! So rare to see a Mercedes customer team outpacing the lead team. McLaren’s got to be wondering where Ricciardo’s gone though. Vettel & Alonso are improving at their teams but he seems to be just getting slower.

    1. Yes, a shame for mclaren as their line-up is potentially as good as red bull’s in 2018, I think norris is verstappen-like, but this isn’t the ricciardo we’re used to.

  8. Mercedes works beaten to a front row by a customer in a dry qualifier! That is something. I think they are just trying too hard with the setups.
    Red Bull expected to be on pole, but there was some issue as per the radio message.
    Good job by Russel beating both Ferrari on medium tyres and one Aston Martin.
    Vettel massively compromised Alonso’s run in Q2.
    Ferrari masterplan was at display, I guess!

  9. Vettel will definitely be getting a 5 or more grid place penalty. Deserved, yes, but these things are usually the driver’s engineer’s fault – I feel somewhat bad for him. I feel worse for Alonso who was in with a shot to get into Q3.
    Ricciardo is hitting new lows, failing to go through Q2 while his teammate takes the front row. I don’t see him turning this around this year, he has probably had his best years behind him.
    Red Bull found more pace than Mercedes did in qualifying, I actually find that surprising. Perez even getting ahead of Hamilton now. I hope Merc has found more race-pace on this track than last week, it is not unlikely considering their setup focus so far in the current season. They absolutely need to find that race pace, as it’s looking more and more like they have definitely lost the lead since Baku.

  10. While it may be surprising that Mercedes was beaten by a customer team, if I remember well, it is not the first time at this track. I think that Mclaren is showing to us that the Mercedes cars are, perhaps, a bit draggy and not so efficient to produce downforce as the Redbulls.

  11. Russel could go further to the front. I think Vettel will get a penalty and maybe Bottas as well. He put Vettel in that position it seems.

  12. There is a difference between quali and race pace…..
    Like last race, it would be expected NOR to be overtaken by PER, HAM and possibly BOT. But it will be interesting HOW LONG it takes to each one to overtake NOR. Probably VER will just extend his gap to 8 secs during the first 2 laps…. We’ll see.
    I hope we get an interesting race. cheers!

Comments are closed.