Lewis Hamilton hailed Ferrari’s “world-class” execution of Austrian Grand Prix qualifying as they achieved the best grid positions of their disappointing season so far.
Charles Leclerc unexpectedly split the dominant McLarens to take second on the grid and equal Ferrari’s best Grand Prix qualifying result of the season, while Hamilton made it onto the second row in fourth for the first time at the Scuderia.
Ferrari have introduced a new floor onto their underperforming SF-25 car for this weekend and Hamilton, who qualified within a tenth of a second of both Leclerc and third-placed Oscar Piastri, told Sky Sports F1: “It’s 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.
“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.
“Also, I think it’s been the best day operationally, particularly through 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.”
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Highlights from qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix
Ferrari – and team principal Frederic Vasseur in particular – have come in for pressure in the Italian media in recent weeks, approaching the halfway mark of a season in which the Scuderia’s pre-season title ambitions have emphatically fallen flat.
Given that external pressure on F1’s biggest and most-famous team, Hamilton said: “Ultimately we continue to pull together and protect each other and block out all the noise, and just keep our heads down.
“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.”
‘I’m just going to stay quiet’ – Can Hamilton finally end podium wait?
Although he won the Sprint race on his second appearance for Ferrari at March’s Chinese GP, and then took third at the season’s second short-form Saturday race in Miami in May, Hamilton’s last official podium finish in F1 came last November when still a Mercedes driver at the Las Vegas GP.
The seven-time world champion is on a run of 12 races without a top-three finish, just one fewer than the worst sequence of his illustrious 18-year F1 career.
“Every race, I’ve been saying I can’t wait to get that first podium, so I’m not going to say that today!” said Hamilton.
“I’m just going to stay quiet and try to do a better job tomorrow.”
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Max Verstappen was left frustrated after only qualifying seventh for Sunday’s race, while Anthony Davidson was at the SkyPad to see whether a yellow flag ruined his hopes of getting pole position
Leclerc to make ‘McLaren’s life as tough as possible’
Ferrari’s cause was certainly helped by the fact that both Piastri and Verstappen were scuppered on their respective final laps of qualifying by yellow flags at the final corner when Alpine’s Pierre Gasly spun. Leclerc’s gap to polesitter Lando Norris was also just over half a second.
Still, outperforming Canadian GP victors Mercedes and challenging Red Bull’s Verstappen to be McLaren’s closest challengers all weekend, Leclerc took the clear positives from the upgraded car’s performance.
“The upgrades definitely helped us,” he said. “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.
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George Russell almost caused an accident in the pit lane during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix after being released into the path of the Ferraris
“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 if he could challenge for the victory, Leclerc replied: “I will give it all. We will see, I don’t have the answers for now.
“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.”
Sky Sports F1’s Austrian GP schedule
Sunday June 29
7.25am: F3 Feature Race
8.55am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Austrian GP build-up*
2pm: THE AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Austrian GP reaction*
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also on Sky Sports Main Event
Next up for the 2025 Formula 1 season is a return to Europe for the Austrian Grand Prix, which is live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime.
