Norris Claims Pole For 2025 Austrian GP

McLaren’s Lando Norris dominated Qualifying to claim pole position for the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix. 

Norris dominated FP3 and all three segments of Qualifying to claim his third pole position of the season amidst a Q3 error from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly which curtailed the final flying laps for many drivers as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc put himself second on the grid.

Now, here is a roundup of all the action across FP3 and Qualifying.

 

FP3

A quiet start to the session saw nobody venture out in the opening three minutes before Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll ventured out for an installation lap.

Verstappen though was the first driver to register a lap time as he posted 1m 06.131 but he managed to find 0.563 seconds on his next two laps, before Norris displaced him in the 16th minute with 1m 05.412.

The Brit on his next flier lowered his benchmark time to 1m 04.888 which stood at the halfway mark from Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and his own teammate, Piastri.

Norris continued to prove unbeaten for the remainder of the session as he lowered the fastest lap to 1m 04.324 in the soft-tyre Qualifying simulations, which saw him head Piastri by 0.118s.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1m 04.324
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.118
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.210
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.250
5	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.466
6	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.694
7	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 0.729
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 0.738
9	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 0.815
10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 0.858
11	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 0.858
12	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.919
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 0.959
14	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.990
15	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 1.002
16	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.042
17	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.042
18	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.195
19	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 1.222
20	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 1.699

 

Qualifying

Q1

The opening segment was delayed five minutes due to an incident-packed F2 Sprint but once the action commenced, Albon set 1m 06.015 as the initial benchmark but Ocon and Hulkenberg soon bettered him before Verstappen set the pace on 1m 05.106 in the seventh minute.

Norris barely a minute later displaced him with 1m 04.672 to top the opening segment, whilst Piastri ran wide at turn 4 on his first lap but managed to put himself second on his second flier.

Once everyone set a lap time, Bortoleto headed the elimination zone ahead of; Albon, Bearman, Alonso and Sainz.

Bortoleto and Albon however improved on their second fliers to go sixth and fifth respectively, which dropped Hulkenberg, Ocon and Stroll into the bottom five.

As the checkered flag fell, Hulkenberg qualified last on the grid behind Sainz who suffered a third consecutive Q1 exit and will line up 19th on the grid.

Stroll, Ocon and Tsunoda qualified 16th. 17th and 18th respectively with the trio split by just 0.040s after Russell escaped elimination with a scruffy final lap to put him 11th-quickest, in which the Brit got wide twice in the second sector.

 

Q2

Leclerc headed Hamilton out of the pits and set 1m 05.446 as the early benchmark from the seven-time champion and Albon, whilst everyone stayed in their garages.

Once the rest of the field ventured out of the pits, Lawson was the first to beat Leclerc’s lap time with 1m 05.248 before Verstappen displaced him, only for Piastri to better the reigning four-time champion by 0.547s but he too was beaten as Norris posted 1m 04.410 to top this segment.

Leclerc and Hamilton went early for their second fliers which put them third and fourth just before the red flags came out with five minutes and 42 seconds, owing to a grass fire at the final corner.

The segment resumed after an eight-minute delay but it was a further two minutes before Hadjar led the field back out for the final Q2 runs.

Bortoleto was amongst the frontrunners out of the pits and managed to go third on his final flier before others had set a lap time.

That ultimately saw the Brazilian progress in fifth as Alonso, Albon, Hadjar, Colapinto and Bearman suffered elimination, with the bottom five split by just 0.184s, whilst the top 15 as a whole in Q2 was only split by 0.902s.

 

Q3

A quiet start saw nobody venture out in the opening two minutes before Gasly led a queue of cars out onto the track and set 1m 05.649 as the benchmark time.

Piastri however displaced him by 1.095s but Norris found a further 0.286s to go on provisional pole with 1m 04.268 as the McLaren pair got split by Leclerc, whilst Hamilton slotted into fourth ahead of; Russell, Verstappen, Antonelli, Bortoleto, Gasly and Lawson – who hadn’t set a lap time in the opening runs.

Gasly however curtailed the final fliers for many drivers after he spun out of the final corner on his last flier, yet Norris wasn’t affected by a brief yellow flag as he took pole with 1m 03.971 to claim his third pole of the season – having converted his pole positions to wins in Australia and Monaco.

Leclerc and Piastri had to settle for second and third on the grid ahead of Hamilton and Russell who rounded out the top five, whilst Lawson timed his sole Q3 lap to snatch sixth ahead of Verstappen.

Bortoleto will start eighth in his best Qualifying performance for Sauber ahead of Antonelli and Gasly.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1m 03.971
2	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.521
3	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.583
4	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.611
5	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.792
6	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 0.955
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.958
8	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 1.161
9	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 1.305
10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.678
11	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1m 05.128
12	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.077
13	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 0.098
14	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 0.160
15	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 0.184
16	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1m 05.329
17	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 0.035
18	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 0.040
19	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 0.253
20	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 0.277