Norris secures pole position in a dominant fashion after disrupted qualifying
- Rohan Brown
- Jun 28
- 4 min read
Written by Rohan Brown
Qualifying for the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix concluded with Lando Norris taking another pole position, with a gap of over five tenths to Charles Leclerc in second place. Among that one of the other notable stories to come out of qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix was Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto securing eighth place in his first ever qualifying three appearance in Formula One.
Qualifying 1
Track conditions were significantly high as qualifying began, with the track temperature being 48 degrees celsius and the humidity level in Spielberg being 34%.
Qualifying 1 was delayed by five minutes, beginning at 16:05 pm local time, due to an incident that occurred in the F2 race which brought out the red flag.
The session began with a few of the drivers exiting the pits to set their banker laps just after the session begun - Lance Stroll initially set the fastest time with a 1:06.061. Building on this, Haas's Esteban Ocon later beat this time by over three tenths, setting a 1:05.681. Ocon's time was then beaten by Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg - who set a 1:05.681.
Further on into the session, Norris set a 1:04.672, which by the 8 minutes remaining mark was the provisionally fastest time of qualifying one. Additionally, Isack Hadjar then managed to set the fourth fastest time around halfway through the session. After that, Norris's McLaren teammate and championship rival Oscar Piastri set the second fastest time, just three tenths of Norris.
With six minutes left in qualifying one, both Spanish drivers Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz found themselves in the bottom five.
After this, rookie driver Gabriel Bortoleto set the fifth fastest lap time - with 5 minutes and 40 seconds left - which was around six tenths off Norris in first place. Alex Albon later succeeded Bortoleto in fifth with 3 minutes and 30 seconds left, his lap time four tenths off Norris.
With little over a minute to go, Liam Lawson set the third fastest lap time of the session, then three tenths off Norris - which is where the Racing Bulls driver would finish at the conclusion of the first part of qualifying.
Oliver Bearman improved to eigth place with a minute to go, the British driver not being eliminiated in qualifying 1.
Mercedes driver George Russell narrowly avoided elimination, setting the 11th fastest time near the end of the session.
The session ended with Stroll, Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Sainz and Hülkenberg being eliminated in the first part of qualifying - Sainz setting a lap time around five tenths slower than his fastest qualifying time.
Qualifying 2
Both Ferrari drivers and Alex Albon were some of the first drivers to set their initial lap times of qualifying two. Charles Leclerc with a 1:05.446, Lewis Hamilton setting a 1:05.651 and Albon with a 1:06.070.
With 10 minutes left in the session, the rest of the grid began to set their first laps in the session - such as RB's Isack Hajdar with a 1:05.446 (on a new set of soft compound tyres). Hadjar's RB teammate Lawson sets the fastest time of the session (as of 8 minutes and 18 seconds remaining), with a 1:05.248 lap time.
However Lawson was later succeeded by Verstappen for the fastest time of the session so far, the Dutch driver setting a 1:05.103 as of seven minutes and 35 seconds remaining in the session.
Later into the session, Russell set the third fastest time - but remained over eight tenths off Piastri in first. But Norris then set a faster time than his drivers' championship rival, setting a 1:04.410 with six minutes and 59 seconds left.
Verstappen was struggling with the Red Bull car, with six minutes remaining mentioned over the radio about how he was struggling with various issues such grip levels.
A fire began on the start-finish straight, which may have been the product of Hamilton going slightly wide in the final corner of the Red Bull Ring - and his skid block colliding with the grass on the straight. Qualifying two resumed at 16:47 pm local time after the fire was cleared.
Most of the drivers exited the pit lane with around 2 minutes 20 seconds of the session left to set their final laps. Bearman improved to eighth place, Russell improved to fifth place and Bortoleto improved to an impressive third place with 53 seconds to go.
Rookie driver Kimi Antonelli improved up to eight place, demoting Bearman, and Alpine driver Pierre Gasly set the sixth fastest time - four tenths off of Norris in first place.
Alonso, Albon, Hadjar, Franco Colapinto and Bearman were eliminated from qualifying two - this is the first time ever Bortoleto has progressed to qualifying three.
Qualifying 3
Not too long after qualifying three began, most of the field left the pits to set their banker laps - and an unsafe release incident concerning George Russell was later noted by the Stewards.
The first lap of the session was set by Antonelli - a 1:05.276. This was soon beaten by the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri, with the former setting a 1:04.268 and the latter with a 1:04.554.
By the the time that three minutes and 29 seconds was left in the session, nine out of 10 drivers had set their banker laps, with only Lawson yet to set a lap time.
Verstappen failed to extend his record for the most pole positions in Austria, the Dutch driver bailed on his lap.
During a tense conclusion to the session, Piastri ended up bailing on his lap, after seemingly being disputed by the side effects of Gasly spin on the final corner before the start-finish straight - the spin brought out a brief yellow flag.
Lando Norris took pole position with a gap of just under three tenths to Leclerc, the British driver putting together a controlled lap to take another pole position in the 2025 season, another notable outcome was Bortoleto securing eighth place on the grid for tomorrow's Grand Prix.
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