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The Australian
a day ago
- Automotive
- The Australian
F1 Austrian GP qualifying: Oscar Piastri's place on starting grid
Deeply frustrated after his final qualifying lap was completely ruined by a yellow flag for another rival's mistake, Australia's Oscar Piastri faces a huge challenge winning Sunday night's Austrian Grand Prix after qualifying third. Prevented from showing what he could really do, Piastri was helpless to prevent his McLaren teammate and main championship rival Lando Norris from taking pole position by more than half a second from Charles Leclerc. Norris claimed his third pole of 2025 after stopping the clock at 1:03.971 but was lucky that Piastri was denied his shot at potentially bettering his time after he put on a fresh set of soft tyres for his final flying lap only to abort when Pierre Gasly spun out of control in his Alpine. Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished second, first and third in qualifying. 'A frustrating end to what was otherwise a positive session,' Piastri said. 'Gasly spun in front of me at the last corner and brought out the yellow flags, which meant I didn't get to open my second lap in Q3. 'I think we easily had the pace to be on the front row, especially as Lando was so quick, but we can have a good race from P3. 'I think there will be opportunities tomorrow and I'm not planning on finishing third.' Pierre Gasly spun during qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. Piastri currently leads the championship standings by 22 points, with Norris in second spot, after he crashed out of the last race in Canada attempting a crazy overtake. The winner of each race earns 25 points with 18 for second and 15 for third. In the 10 races held so far this season, the driver on pole has gone on to win six times. The only man to win in 2025 from outside the front row was Piastri at Miami. 'It is always a shame when you don't even get the chance. But we can still have a good race from there. Sometimes it's just not your day,' Piastri said. 'Lando was pretty quick all weekend, so it would have been difficult, definitely, but not impossible (to get pole). 'Obviously I'm disappointed to not have that opportunity, but I think there are opportunities tomorrow to try and go forward a bit more, so try and take them. 'I'd definitely rather be starting where Lando is, but I think there's still opportunities. It's a long race. It's going to be hot. It's tyre degradation here, so there's plenty of ways I can work myself back into the race.' Oscar Piastri congratulated his teammate Lando Norris for taking pole position. Despite being in the fastest car, Norris has struggled to consistently produce his best in qualifying this season but was right on song at the high-speed Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. 'Nice to see the old me back every now and again,' the Englishman told his engineers over the team radio. 'That was pretty damn beautiful.' After climbing out of the cockpit for his trackside interview, he added: 'Qualifying has been some of my tough moments so to put in a lap like this is pleasing for myself. 'It's a long race tomorrow and a long season. I want to prove it myself over and over again and this is just the beginning of it.' Leclerc split the McLarens to stick his Ferrari on the front row for only the second time this season, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth, his best qualifying result of 2025, to join Piastri on the second row. 'I am very pleased. Monaco was the last time we started on the front row and it has been a difficult season,' Leclerc said. 'We brought some new parts this weekend, which for sure have made a difference. I am very happy with the lap. 'We know we have a better car in the normal race than in qualifying so I hope we can put a bit more pressure on the McLarens in the race.' Max Verstappen qualified seventh. The four-time defending world champion Max Verstappen qualified seventh in his Red Bull after his final flying lap was also compromised by Gasly's untimely spin. Currently third in the drivers' standings, 43 points behind Piastri, the Dutchman said he didn't have the pace to match the McLarens but could still have been much higher. 'It depends how those last two corners would have gone. We would have been closer,' Verstappen said. 'It just didn't work in qualifying for whatever reason, there was not one single corner where I felt we had a nice balance. We were not McLaren level but we were still OK but in qualifying it just disappeared.' Australia's James Wharton won the Formula 3 sprint race. There was one big win for Australia already at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday when Aussie teenager James Wharton claimed victory in the F3 sprint. Benefiting from a reverse grid, the 18-year-old led the 21-lap race from pole to chequered flag to become the first Australian to win any F3 race since Jack Doohan in 2021. 'We finally got the result we've been working for all season. It's been a tough start, but we've worked hard with the team and behind the scenes to get here,' Wharton said. 'Yes, it's a Sprint Race, but we take it one step at a time. Now we've ticked this box, and we'll focus on winning a feature race too.'
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton frustrated by ‘extreme' Spa rain call
On Thursday evening in the Ardennes hundreds of team members from various series, drivers, journalists and assorted others gathered on the track at Spa-Francorchamps to 'Run for Anthoine'. The annual event is organised by the Alpine driver Pierre Gasly in memory of his close friend Anthoine Hubert, who died in 2019, at the age of just 22, after a multi-car collision in a wet feature Formula 2 race at Spa. Hubert is far from the only driver to lose his life at the notoriously fast circuit, which is frequently subject to torrential rain. Just four years after his death, Dutch teenager Dilano van 't Hoff was also killed in similar wet conditions. In total there have been 53 fatalities, including the deaths of four marshals, since Spa's opening in 1924. All of which goes a long way to explaining why race control erred on the side of caution when weighing up when to pull the trigger on Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, which was immediately preceded by torrential rain. To call that caution excessive, however, would be an understatement. For the thousands of bedraggled fans watching from the grandstands, most of whom camp close by in the days leading up to the race, the delay was hugely frustrating. Earlier, they had watched a very entertaining F2 race in similarly damp conditions. Everyone was excited by the prospect of witnessing the world's best drivers try to negotiate the treacherous Spa circuit in the wet. Millions more watching on television probably gave up and went and did something else. The Fagnes chicane proved to be a challenge in our Feature Race at Spa! 👀 #F2 #BelgianGP — Formula 2 (@Formula2) July 27, 2025 It was not a bad call. In the end, what we got was a pretty dull affair. By the time the race finally got under way, behind a safety car, 1hr 20min after the official start time, the track was rapidly drying. Race control still left the safety car out for four laps to clear more of the standing water, with the result that there was a dry line already visible. Race-winner Oscar Piastri needed just four race laps to consider switching to dry tyres and within eight laps of actual racing all the drivers were on slicks, and from then on it was processional. What did the drivers think? Both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, who have 11 F1 world titles between them, were firmly of the opinion that the race could have started on time at 3pm. 'It was not even raining by then,' Verstappen pointed out. 'OK there was quite a bit of [standing] water between Turns 1 and 5, but two laps behind the safety car then it would have been a lot more clear. So it's a bit of a shame. 'We [Red Bull] made a choice with the set-up for wet weather and then they only allowed us to drive in almost slick conditions! We spoke after [the recent wet-weather race at] Silverstone to be a little bit cautious with the decisions but this was at the other extreme for me.' Hamilton agreed the race could have started on time, although he did say the drivers had to take some of the responsibility following those post-Silverstone chats. Race control was listening to the drivers' feedback as they lapped behind the safety car and nearly all of them, especially those at the back, were complaining it was unsafe. 'Lots of drivers in the last race said we shouldn't have restarted, because of a lack of visibility. So as soon as someone said 'visibility is pretty bad'...it wasn't great but it wasn't as bad as the last race… I think they just waited. 'They still did a good job. Of course we did miss some of the extreme wet-weather racing, which would have been nice.' Fans short-changed No one is saying it is an easy call. Spa is a notoriously dangerous circuit, with an extremely dangerous section between T1 (La Source) and T7 (Les Combes). The drivers go through a compression at Eau Rouge and then up a steep incline on the other side, exiting onto a blind crest onto the Kemmel Straight. Although changes were made following Hubert's death, and there is now more run-off on the left-hand side of Eau Rouge and Raidillon in particular, with the barriers moved back quite significantly, it is still possible for cars to go off, hit the barrier and bounce back onto the racing line. George Russell was probably in the majority of drivers who felt race control got it right. The Mercedes driver, who is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers Association, said it would have been 'stupidity' to begin the race any earlier. 'As a racer, you always want to get going, you love driving in the rain, but the fact is, when you're doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally can't see anything,' Russell said. 'You may as well have a blindfold on. It isn't racing, it's just stupidity. 'So I think, considering it was clearly going to be dry from four o'clock onwards, I think they made the right call.' But an element of danger and risk is also part and parcel of Formula One. Fans were denied what could have been an exciting race on Sunday. If the Spa circuit needs further modifications to make it safer, fine, but they surely ought to be able to race in the wet. Ex-driver Karun Chandhok spoke for millions when he posted on social media a few minutes before the restart: 'Have we just given up on having wet races anymore? They're going to be on slicks in a few minutes!' He was absolutely right.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Climate
- BBC News
Belgian Grand Prix sprint race - radio & text
Update: Date: 10:53 BST Title: Post Content: It is a suspected water leak issue that has scuppered Pierre Gasly's Sprint race and it is sounding like he is going to have to sit it out. Update: Date: 10:52 BST Title: How's the weather? Content: Ian FergussonBBC weather forecaster With 15 minutes to the start, air temp is 21.1C & track 37.4C. Light NW wind. Dry; FIA official risk of rain is 0%. There's a low risk (currently <20%) of a shower later this afternoon. FIA guidance remains a 60% shower chance for tomorrow's race. Update: Date: 10:50 BST Title: What happened on Friday? Content: Andrew BensonBBC F1 correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps McLaren's Oscar Piastri produced a breathtaking performance to set pole position for the sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix. The Australian, the world championship leader, was 0.477 seconds quicker than Red Bull's Max Verstappen and 0.618secs ahead of team-mate and title rival Lando Norris. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fourth, but 0.768secs off the pace, while his team-mate Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in the first session and will start 18th after a mistake on his first lap and a spin at the final corner on his second. Esteban Ocon's Haas took a surprise fifth place, split from his British team-mate Oliver Bearman by Williams' Carlos Sainz. Alpine's Pierre Gasly, Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar and Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto completed the top 10. Piastri only just made it through to the final shootout for pole in 10th place after having his first lap in the second session ruled out for exceeding track limits at Raidillon. But he had looked the quickest driver all day and he delivered on his potential with impressive effect. Update: Date: 10:50 BST Title: The grid Content: This was how qualifying ended yesterday but the grid isn't quite the same now with the Alpine issues. Update: Date: 10:48 BST Title: Post Content: Not a good start to Saturday for Alpine. Franco Colapinto is starting in the pitlane and Pierre Gasly's car is just being wheeled off the grid and back into the garage. Update: Date: 10:46 BST Title: Coming up today Content: (All times BST) Sprint race: 11:00 (BBC Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra 2, BBC Sounds and smart speakers) Qualifying: 15:00-16:00 (BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2, BBC Sounds and smart speakers) Update: Date: 10:45 BST Title: Post Content: "Almost perfect". That's how McLaren described Oscar Piastri's Sprint qualifying session as he produced a dominant display to take pole position comfortably clear of the rest of the field. McLaren are taking some stopping at the moment, and that looks set to continue in today's Sprint race and Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.
New Indian Express
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- New Indian Express
Indian F1 driver Maini leads Alpine team in Festival of Speed
CHENNAI: FORMULA 1 driver Kush Maini led BWT-Alpine's presence on the opening day of the prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed, taking on the iconic Hill Climb in the podium-finishing A523- Alpine's 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship challenger. Kush Maini is currently a reserve driver for the Alpine team, which features Frenchman Pierre Gasly and Argentine Franco Colapinto as their main drivers. Currently competing in FIA Formula 2, Kush being the reserve driver, was Alpine's sole representative at Thursday's Formula 1 demonstration alongside other F1 teams, as the festival marked 75 years of the sport.
Telegraph
08-07-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
F1 2025 driver ratings: Verstappen loses No 1 spot, Norris down in fourth
With the British Grand Prix completed, we have reached the half-way point of the 2025 Formula One season. There is no better time, then, to rank and rate the 21 drivers who have competed this year. We have delved deeper than the overall standings and headline stats to assess how each driver is performing, awarding points for each race weekend (20 points for the best down to one for the worst) and totalled up over the season so far, adjusting for those who have not completed all races. As this list follows on from our first rankings in May, we note whether the drivers have moved up, down or if they stayed where they were. You have to feel for both of Pierre Gasly's team-mates this season. They are in a difficult car, in tough circumstances and under immense pressure to perform knowing that they could be – or indeed have been – replaced at short notice. Has Franco Colapinto done any better or worse than Jack Doohan since coming in? Neither, in short. But it is a very low bar. A series of expensive errors knowing that Colapinto was waiting in the wings cost the Australian his seat. Since Tsunoda switched to Red Bull he has not only been outscored enormously by team-mate Max Verstappen but also Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in the sister team. Worse still, he is showing signs of regression. He might get to the end of the season with this team, but you feel that the end could be nigh for his F1 career. There have been some good moments from Stroll this season, including seventh in the wet – when he usually excels – at Silverstone. He leads Alonso on points at the half-way stage but that is incredibly unrepresentative. Way too distant in qualifying and is a long way from getting the best from an improved AMR25. Lawson is starting to find his feet again at Racing Bulls, where the car is more benign than the RB21. From Monaco onwards he has been fairly evenly matched with team-mate Isack Hadjar in our ratings. He has still struggled in qualifying against him (around three-tenths slower) but put in strong race performances in Monaco and especially Austria. It may seem a lowly position, but the Brazilian rookie should be encouraged by the first half of his debut year in F1. Firstly, he has pushed Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying (less than a tenth of a second behind on average). In races he has been a little more distant, but picked up a strong eighth in Austria and has at least regularly been in contention for the top 10 since Sauber's recent improvement. Bearman placed in the top 10 in our previous rankings but has slipped down to 15th after some questionable performances. There is not much between Bearman and Gasly in 11th, but the Haas rookie has been penalised in our system for the two red-flag infringements in Monaco and Great Britain. The latter of those resulted in a pit-lane crash, and both are inexcusable. Has failed to score a point since round three in Bahrain. It did look as if Carlos Sainz had got his head around his new team and his new car. But after a run of beating Alexander Albon in qualifying four times out of five, he has now been beaten four times out of the last five. Thirteen points is not a totally representative return compared to Albon's 46, but Sainz has no doubt been second best to his team-mate, though has been beset by some ill-fortune. As the season goes on, Ocon is gradually showing his class and experience compared to his more inexperienced team-mate. Since we last did our ratings at the end of May, he has had another two points finishes and has only been beaten on track (by two places) by Bearman once in that time, despite qualifying behind him three times. That said, taking out his team-mate at Silverstone was not a good look and may have cost the team points. The last couple of months have been erratic for the Italian teenager. After a solid start of six points finishes in the first seven rounds, his only top 10 since then is an excellent maiden podium in Canada with four non-finishes in six rounds and 18th in Monaco. Some of those DNFs were not his fault but others were down to rookie errors. It is not unfair to say that, as talented as he is, he is still finding his feet in F1. It is hard to get a genuine read on how good Gasly has been this season because of the flakiness of his team-mates. Still, it is difficult to imagine that he could have done a great deal more in a car that is somewhere towards the back of the midfield both in qualifying – though less so – and race pace. Two strong points finishes in Spain and Great Britain mean that he jumps a few places from his previous position of 14th. A quietly impressive season. After placing 15th in our previous list, Hulkenberg has jumped up the rankings into the top 10. That is no surprise, as he has scored 31 points in the last four rounds – more than Max Verstappen and only nine fewer than both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Four of his points finishes in 2025 have come from the lower reaches on the grid, too. He has not shown his usual qualifying dominance over his team-mate, but as soon as the Sauber was able to regularly contend from points he has delivered them. Still the highest-placed rookie in our list, but Hadjar has slipped down a couple of spots after some indifferent form. Seventh in Spain was his fourth top-10 in five races but he has not troubled the points since. Points may be harder to come by now with the revival of Sauber and an incredibly tight midfield, but this has been a strong start for the Frenchman. The two-time champion has shot up our rankings from 13th to equal seventh on the basis of his performances in the last four races. After scoring no points in the first eight rounds, he now has 16 in the last four in an improved Aston Martin. He has destroyed Stroll in qualifying, beating him 13-1 and averaging nearly 0.7sec faster. Alonso is still frustrated at the competitiveness of his car, and sometimes the decisions his team makes, but now there is the chance of points in the AMR25 he is delivering every weekend. Things have settled down a little for Hamilton at Ferrari after a turbulent start. There is no chance of a championship or even victories at the moment, so it is about getting the best from the car. Is he doing that? No, but he is now a lot closer to achieving that than he was after six rounds. The encouraging signs are that he is now proving a match for Leclerc in qualifying, beating him in three of the last four rounds. Silverstone and Imola aside he has not quite matched him on Sundays, but is at least limiting the damage in a more competitive car. 6. Alexander Albon, Williams – 148pts (down 1) Albon has clung onto his lofty position in this list largely through his efforts in the first part of the season. That is not to say that he has been poor since Monaco, but his eighth place at Silverstone was his first points finish and indeed his first finish since Monaco. Williams have slipped back a little, so he might struggle to repeat his first-half results from here on. That said, that he is comfortably the best-performing Williams driver against a highly-rated Sainz is another tick. He has scored points in all but one of the races in which he took the chequered flag. In 2025 so far Leclerc has met expectations. That is not doing him down, but his ability, record and reputation over his career is so high that it is not a surprise he is where he is in the championship. His advantage over Hamilton in qualifying has lessened since early on, which is to be expected. Now the Ferrari is fighting to be the second-quickest car behind McLaren, he has been able to score three podiums in the last five rounds. Silverstone was a rare blip. Norris retains fourth but could have moved up more were it not for his aberration in Canada. There is no excuse for crashing into your team-mate like that. Since that embarrassing moment, though, he has won two races and closed the gap in the drivers' championship to just eight points. Perhaps the Montreal crash forced the reset he really needed? Or has it been the suspension tweak he has made to his McLaren? Hard to say, but if he is to win the championship he needs to repeat this form over the next 12 rounds. Like team-mate Antonelli, Russell's recent rounds have been up and down, though less extreme. Aside from his win in Canada he has finished fourth, fifth and 10th. Silverstone was a missed opportunity after starting from fourth but the Mercedes probably wasn't quite there to contend in any case. Like a few others in the list, there is surely not a great deal more that Russell could be doing in this car. Antonelli has not proved much competition but a lot of that is down to Russell's consistently high level. Verstappen has slipped down from first to second (and by a reasonable margin) for one main reason – his silly, stupid and inexcusable clash with George Russell in Spain. Overall he has performed exceptionally well, but the last four races have been weak, a second place in Canada aside. His non-finish in Austria was not his fault but Red Bull have struggled to give him a car that can truly contend for victory. That is the story of the last 12 months. That said, his sensational pole lap at Silverstone shows what he is capable of. For the first time this season Piastri has gone three races without a victory, losing ground to team-mate Norris. There is no doubt that the Australian has lost a little bit of his edge in recent rounds and has made more mistakes too. Some of those have been small and in qualifying, but his Safety Car infringement in the British Grand Prix is his first major mistake since his opening-round spin. The time penalty was deserved, whatever he says. That said, he is still having a superb season and deserves to top this list.
