Lewis Hamilton was fifth in qualifying for the Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix, finishing 0.589s behind Max Verstappen’s pole position (Red Bull). His teammate, George Russell, finished third, less than a tenth of a second behind.
So far, Verstappen has clearly been superior at the Red Bull Ring – proving it this Saturday with a dominant victory in the Sprint race and with his performance in qualifying for the main race, after doing the same in qualifying for the Sprint yesterday.
The superiority shown by the RB20 caught Hamilton by surprise. Quoted by RacingNews365.com, the veteran British driver acknowledged his inferiority to Red Bull, despite the Mercedes W15 being at its maximum strength:
– Changes for qualifying, the car was better, there were no major issues. We are far below comparing to Max [Verstappen] in high-speed corners, very far. It’s crazy how much faster they are in high-speed corners. I think they are about 12km/h or 13km/h faster. We simply don’t have enough aerodynamic load. We didn’t make any compromises, it was simply everything we had.
