Lewis Hamilton commended Ferrari`s `world-class` performance during Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, highlighting their achievement of the best grid positions seen this season after a challenging start.
Charles Leclerc secured a surprise second place, splitting the dominant McLarens and matching Ferrari`s best qualifying result of the year. Hamilton also reached the second row for the first time with the Scuderia, qualifying fourth.
Ferrari introduced a new floor for this weekend`s race on their SF-25 car, which has been underperforming. Hamilton, who was less than a tenth of a second behind both Leclerc and third-placed Oscar Piastri, stated it was “a fantastic result.”
The team have worked really hard back at the factory to bring us a new floor this weekend. Considering yesterday we were a lot further off, for us to be much closer and on the second row is really fantastic. And for Charles on the front row too.
Reflecting on his own effort, he added, “My last lap wasn’t perfect. I think if I’d finished it, I would have been second, so there are lots of positives to take out from that session.”
Hamilton also praised the team`s execution, describing it as their best operational day of the season, particularly during qualifying.
Just timings, the information we’re getting in terms of traffic and positioning on track, I think was really the best and proper world-class, so that’s what we’ve been working towards.
Ferrari and Team Principal Frederic Vasseur have recently faced pressure from the Italian media as the season approaches its midpoint, with the Scuderia`s pre-season title ambitions not materializing.
Addressing this external pressure, Hamilton commented, “Ultimately we continue to pull together and protect each other and block out all the noise, and just keep our heads down.”
He emphasized the positive team environment and collaboration with Vasseur:
It’s an incredible team. I’m working with Fred, we’re working to put all the pieces of the puzzle in the right place, but step by step. It can’t be done in one go. We’ve just got to keep working on it, but I’m really happy with the progress we are making.
Can Hamilton End His Podium Drought?
While he secured victories in the Sprint races in China and a third place in Miami this year, Hamilton`s last official Grand Prix podium finish was in November last year at the Las Vegas GP while still driving for Mercedes.
The seven-time world champion is currently enduring a streak of 12 races without a top-three finish in a main race, just one short of his longest career drought spanning 18 years in F1.
Expressing his cautious optimism for the upcoming race, Hamilton remarked,
Every race, I’ve been saying I can’t wait to get that first podium, so I’m not going to say that today! I’m just going to stay quiet and try to do a better job tomorrow.
Leclerc Aims to Challenge McLaren
Ferrari`s strong qualifying performance was partially aided by yellow flags on the final laps, which hindered Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen. Despite this, Charles Leclerc`s gap to pole-sitter Lando Norris was still over half a second.
Nevertheless, after outperforming the recent Canadian GP winners Mercedes and challenging Red Bull`s Verstappen throughout the weekend, Leclerc found clear positives in the upgraded car`s performance.
The upgrades definitely helped us. How much? It’s difficult to know, especially when you see how fine the margins are – apart from Lando – but it definitely helped us to get the front row, so for that we should be proud of the work done.
Leclerc added, “Apart from that, I think we did a great job. We worked very well this weekend and I’m looking forward to tomorrow because most of the time our race car is better than our qualifying car.”
Asked about the possibility of challenging for victory, Leclerc replied, “I will give it all. We will see, I don’t have the answers for now.”
He concluded, “The gap is very big today but tomorrow with tyre management, I think that we have a good car on that. Whether it will be as good as McLaren, I don’t know, but I will do absolutely everything to make McLaren’s life as tough as possible.”
Marcus Prine