Lewis Hamilton was once again second best up against Mercedes teammate George Russell in a qualifying session at the Austrian Grand Prix. Russell qualified fourth for the Sprint, with Hamilton sixth.
Hamilton made a costly error on the exit of turn three on his SQ3 lap, running wide and losing time. With only one set of tyres available for the session, he had no second chance.
Russell’s cleaner lap was just over two-tenths faster, though Mercedes will still have been disappointed with the three-and-a-half-tenth deficit to polesitter Max Verstappen. The Ferrari of Carlos Sainz split the two cars.
Hamilton could have suffered even more from his mistake. His rival Charles Leclerc was unable to make the start/finish line in time after encountering an issue in the pitlane.
Russell leads his Mercedes teammate 8-2 in Grand Prix qualifying sessions this year, and is now 2-1 ahead in Sprint equivalent. Hamilton started on the front row after a wet SQ3 in China, but Russell edged him out in Miami.
The former Williams driver enters the event 11 points ahead in the championship too, with the two Silver Arrows pair seventh and eighth. Hamilton beat him on Saturday and Sunday in Barcelona last time out, the first time that’s happened all season.
Lewis Hamilton studied George Russell to data to try and beat him at Austrian GP
Hamilton seemed to be on the backfoot throughout Friday afternoon’s session. He just about saved a huge slide coming out of turn one on his very first lap, and while he improved sufficiently on his second run, he still only scraped through SQ1.
SQ2 was a more stable session but once again Russell had the upper hand, and the 26-year-old maintained that advantage in the top 10 shoot-out too after another Hamilton error. Speaking prior to SQ3, Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz shared what he’d spotted the seven-time world champion doing in the garage.
He was apparently poring over Russell’s telemetry between the sessions to try and work out where he was losing time. Hamilton had finished ahead in FP1, but once again fell back when it counted.
“A bit of a gap between Hamilton and Russell,” Kravitz said. “I wonder how much that scrappy start to sprint qualifying has hurt Hamilton. Lewis has been made aware and is looking at that data to see if he can claw some of that time back.”
Hamilton calls Sebastian Vettel to ask about Ferrari engineer
Hamilton is approaching the halfway point of his final season with his Mercedes before he joins Ferrari next year. He’s trying to find a path back to top form after making his poorest-ever start to an F1 campaign.
After Russell took pole position and he could only manage seventh at the Canadian Grand Prix, he told Mercedes to investigate a possible issue with the tyre blankets. He delivered his best qualifying of the year in Barcelona with third, but the early indication in Spielberg is that he’s still looking for a lasting breakthrough.
Whether it’s related to tyre preparation or not, it’s clear that Hamilton isn’t able to consistently extract the maximum from his W15 over a single lap. And for a driver who’s scored a record 104 poles in his career, this is certainly unfamiliar territory.
While he works with his Mercedes engineers, he’s also laying the groundwork for next year. Leclerc says the 39-year-old has been asking about the performance levels of Ferrari.
Hamilton has also reportedly made contact with his former rival Sebastian Vettel, who drove for the Scuderia between 2015 and 2020. He was seeking insight on Vettel’s former engineer Riccardo Adami, who may well be assisting him over the radio next year.
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