A trend from the 2017 Formula 1 season so far has been these new, faster cars (with fatter tyres) absolutely crushing the previous fastest ever laps at circuits.
That continued in Austria during qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, with Bottas narrowly beating Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to pole position for Sunday’s race.
It’s his second pole in F1, and he did so in pretty impressive style. His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton already broke the record in FP1, and lowered the benchmark further in FP2.
His 1:05.483 was blown out of the water in qualifying, with Bottas setting the best time ever at the Red Bull Ring in his first Q3 run.
The Finnish driver set a staggering 1:04.251, and drivers weren’t able to complete their final runs due to yellow flags. So, it’s fair to say a quicker time could’ve been possible.
It’s not the official lap record, that has to be set in the race to count, but it’s still the fastest ever lap around the circuit and that’s pretty damn cool.
The previous best lap was set in qualifying for the 2016 Austrian GP, with Hamilton putting in a 1:06.228 – so Bottas was almost two seconds faster!
Bottas finished just 0.042 seconds ahead of Vettel, with Lewis Hamilton struggling slightly in third – he has a five-place grid drop, though, and will start P8.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth fastest in Q3, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, who spun off at Turn 8 after losing the rear of his car. The full qualifying result is below.
PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION: END OF QUALIFYING#AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/oN3QobDsc6
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 8, 2017
It wasn’t the most thrilling F1 qualifying session, but it definitely threw up some interesting moments and some seriously quick laps.
