© Getty ImagesNo home quali comforts with Max in seventh and Yuki out in Q1 Read the report below.
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After making what he called “straightforward” progress on Friday, Max continued to make unfussy steps forward early on Saturday afternoon. The Champion kicked off his FP3 work with 20 laps of fact-finding on the C3 Hard compound before eventually pumping in a pair of Soft tyre runs, the best of which, at 1:04.534, took him to P3 on the timesheet, just two tenths of a second off pacesetter Lando Norris and a tenth behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.
The only small blemish on Max’s session came close to the end, where pushing hard he took too much kerb in Turn 10 and pirouetted. “OK, small 360,” he blithely commented as he spun back to a straight line on the pit straight and continued.
Yuki also continued the good form he showed on day one. Sticking to Soft tyre runs the initially outpaced Max before dropping down the order during a spell in the garage. Eventually, though, he went for his quali sim and a solid flying lap of 1:05.139 put him in P9 at the end of the session.
Max was the first of the Bulls out on track in Q1, with the Champion heading out ahead of the twin McLarens. The Dutchman jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:05.106, but a moment into Turn 4 cost him time and Lando stole top spot by 0.434s. Oscar had even more difficulty with Turn 4 and after dipping wheels into the gravel the Australian abandoned his lap and prepped for another. And when that came, it was quicker than Max’s opener, though only by a tenth.
Yuki’s first run of Q1 was a solid 1:05.386, and that left our Japanese driver in 10th place as he headed back to the garage, a little under three hundredths of a second behind Mercedes’ George Russell.
Track evolution was now beginning to come into play and with a little under five minutes left, Williams’ Alex Albon put in a purple middle sector to vault to fourth place with a time of 1:05.143. With improved times now flowing in, Yuki dropped to 12th as he headed out for his final flyer. But though the Red Bull driver put in personal best times in the final two sectors, lost time in Turn 1 left him down in 18th and out of qualifying. Ruled out alongside Yuki, were Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P16, followed by Haas’ Esteban Ocon, while Carlos Sainz went out in P19 ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg.
Max was also back on track at the end of the session just to cover any eventualities but while Liam and Isack put in strong laps to rise to third and fifth respectively, and the VCARB drivers were split by Alpine’s Pierre, Max backed out of his lap and eased through in P6.
The VCARB drivers, on new tyres, continued to show good pace in the opening runs of Q2 with Liam taking an early P1 with a lap of 1:05.248 and Isack taking P3 behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. But the top three from Q1 were soon on track and Lando once again rose to top spot with a lap of 1:04.410. Oscar slotted into second a little over a tenth behind but Max’s 1:05.103 was only good enough for fifth behind the Ferraris as he complained that the grip from his RB21 was “even worse than before”.
Just as the first runs came to an end the red flags were thrown when a grass fire broke out at the beginning of the start/finish straight.
When the session resumed, the final runs proved to be a mixed bag. Max found three tenths of a second to post a lap of 1:04.836. That put him third behind Norris and Piastri, who both made mistakes on their final run, but behind them on track Leclerc also made gains, and he stole third from Max by a tenth.
Behind Max, Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto sprung a surprise by jumping to P5 to claim the first Q3 spot of his career. Pierre also delivered a good lap to take sixth ahead of George and Lewis. Liam backed out of his final lap but made it through in P9 ahead of Kimi, but there was no joy for team-mate Isack Hadjar. Like his team-mate, an error from the French driver led to him backing out of his lap and he exited in P13 ahead of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto and Haas’ Ollie Bearman, but behind the P11 Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and Williams’ Alex Albon.
At the start of the top-10 shootout, there was no resisting the pace of Lando who took top spot with a lap of 1:04.268. Oscar made a slight error at the start of his lap and that allowed Charles to take P2 a little over five hundredths ahead of the Australian who was two tenths off top spot. Behind the top three, Lewis slotted into fourth ahead of George, and Max, with only one set of fresh Softs to work with, ended up in P6 with a time of 1:04.929 set on used tyres. George, though, was noted for being released into the fast lane in front of Max as they headed out for their opening runs.
But the Champion wouldn’t get the chance to make the most of his fresh set. Pierre spun luridly at the final corner and with DRS disabled Max was forced to back out of his final flyer and with Lewis, George and Liam jumping ahead the Dutchman had to settle for a disappointing seventh ahead of Gabriel, Kimi and the unfortunate Pierre. At the top of the timesheet, Lando took pole, but with Oscar also having to abort his lap, Charles slipped through to the front row ahead of the Australian.
The Bulls will start from P7 and P18 for the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday!
