Feature

Qualifying facts and stats: Sainz and Russell hit career highs in Styria

11 July 2020

McLaren's Spanish driver Carlos Sainz Jr arrives after the qualifying for the Formula One Styrian

The weather delay kept us on tenterhooks, but when the rain finally eased – slightly – Saturday’s Styrian Grand Prix qualifying provided an amazing spectacle - and some fascinating facts and figures...

QUALIFYING REPORT: Hamilton beats Verstappen to pole by 1.2s with epic lap in the wet

• Lewis Hamilton's pole today was the 89th of his career – and tomorrow he will be attempting to break Ayrton Senna's record of leading 19 races from start-to-finish.

• Max Verstappen will start 2nd at the Red Bull Ring for the 3rd consecutive visit, following his P2 qualifying results here last year and last weekend.

• Third on the grid is Carlos Sainz’s best-ever qualifying result – the McLaren driver has previously never started higher than the third row.

• It means that for the 2nd week in a row, a McLaren begins a Grand Prix from 3rd.

• With 4th, Valtteri Bottas had his worst qualifying on this track since joining Mercedes in 2017.

• Esteban Ocon’s P5 for Renault was the team’s best qualifying result since Monza last year, when Daniel Ricciardo started 5th and went on to finish 4th.

SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA - JULY 11: George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Williams Racing FW43 — Williams' George Russell made Q2 for the first time - and wasn't far off Q3

• Even with his 3-place grid penalty dropping him to 9th, on Sunday Lando Norris will start in the top-10 for the 9th consecutive race.

• Ferrari only got one car into Q3 for the 2nd consecutive race, the first time that has happened since Canada/Austria 2015.

• This time Charles Leclerc was the Ferrari man to miss the cut – the only other time he has failed to make Q3 for the Scuderia was in Monaco last year.

• George Russell missed Q3 by just 0.091s, after reaching Q2 for the first time in his career.

• It gave Williams their first Q2 appearance since Brazil 2018, when Sergey Sirotkin qualified 15th.

• At Racing Point, Lance Stroll out-qualified Sergio Perez for the only the 4th time in their 23 races as team mates.