Austrian Grand Prix
Front-row pace on Saturday, undone by Sunday tyre wear: Russell pole to win, Hamilton P5 and Leclerc P8.
Race conditions · AIR 34.4°C · TRACK 50.2°C · HUM 30% · WIND 1.4 m/s · DRY
Il Circuito
Red Bull Ring
▮Racing line traced from real OpenF1 GPS telemetry: fastest lap of the 2025 qualifying, car #4, 1:03.971
Lap length
4.318
kilometres
Corners
10
medium downforce spec
Race laps
71
307 km race distance
Overtake zones
3
manual-override aid zones
Signature
10
corners, the shortest lap on the calendar
Race-day conditions, measured
Air
34.4 °C
Track
50.2 °C
Humidity
30%
Wind
1.4 m/s
Circuit character
Sixty-something seconds of Styrian rollercoaster: three uphill braking zones, two blind crests and grid-wide slipstream games every lap. Track-limit policing at T9–10 routinely rewrites the timing screens.
Where the passes happen
- ▸T3 uphill hairpin
- ▸T4 after the second straight
- ▸T1: short-run punch off the grid
P1
George RUSSELL
Mercedes · 1:26:37.979
P2
Max VERSTAPPEN
Red Bull Racing · +1.611s
P3
Kimi ANTONELLI
Mercedes · +1.986s
Analisi
The Ferrari read
01
Leclerc qualified P2 and Hamilton P3, both holding provisional pole on their final Q3 runs until Russell's last lap edged them. Leclerc came home 0.236s off pole, with Ferrari fighting at the sharp end of a Saturday once again after Verstappen's Turn 9 crash brought out the yellows.
02
Sunday undid it in the heat. Tyre degradation pushed both cars down the order: Hamilton dropped from the front row to P5, 26.393s back, after losing a Turn 6 fight with Verstappen, and Leclerc faded to P8, 45.659s adrift and six places below his grid slot.
03
Fourteen points, Hamilton's 10 and Leclerc's 4, was a thin return on a near-pole lockout. Russell's win lifted him past Hamilton in the championship, so Mercedes now hold the top two places with Hamilton third. The deficit has shifted from Saturday pace to Sunday conversion.
Strategia
Ferrari race data
Lap times (dashed lines mark pit stops)
LEC best lap
1:10.606
σ 1.104s over 62 clean laps
HAM best lap
1:10.946
σ 1.033s over 65 clean laps
LEC top speed
317
km/h, speed trap
HAM top speed
319
km/h, speed trap
Leclerc pit stops
| Stop | Lap | Pit lane time |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | L13 | 21.7s |
| #2 | L37 | 21.0s |
| #3 | L59 | 22.7s |
Hamilton pit stops
| Stop | Lap | Pit lane time |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | L12 | 21.3s |
| #2 | L25 | 21.2s |
| #3 | L42 | 21.2s |
Analisi Profonda
The deep read
The stint sheet tells the story the result only hints at. Both Ferraris ran three stops, Leclerc boxing on laps 13, 37 and 59 and Hamilton on 12, 25 and 42, while race winner Russell and Max Verstappen each stopped only twice. With the track above 50°C and the air at 34°C, the SF-26 could not make a set last the way the Mercedes and Red Bull ahead could, and that extra stop cost roughly 21 seconds in the pit lane plus a long run on worn rubber.
It was not a Saturday weakness. Qualifying telemetry put Leclerc within 0.236s of Russell's pole and Hamilton a tenth further back, the front-row pace the Barcelona package promised. The deficit at the Red Bull Ring was purely race-day: tyre life, not single-lap speed, turned a front-row start into P5 and P8.
What went right
- ▲Single-lap pace was genuinely there. Leclerc qualified P2 just 0.236s off pole and Hamilton P3, both holding provisional pole into the closing seconds of Q3 before Russell's final lap edged them.
- ▲The pit wall was flawless under a three-stop load. All six Ferrari stops across the two cars fell around 21 seconds with no fumbles, the crew reacting cleanly to a tyre picture that kept moving.
- ▲Both cars finished and scored, and the first ADUO engine token ran without drama on debut: a quiet but real reliability and development box ticked.
What went wrong
- ▼Tyre degradation forced a stop the front-runners did not need. Three stops against Russell's and Verstappen's two is the clearest measurement yet of the SF-26's race-day weakness in heat.
- ▼Both cars went backwards from the grid: Leclerc from P2 to P8, six places lost, and Hamilton from P3 to P5. A front-row start returned just 14 points.
- ▼The gap to the genuine front, the Mercedes and Red Bull on Sunday pace, did not close at all. Qualifying has converged; the race is still a different conversation.
Was it a bad result? · Below par
Not a disaster, but a clear underperformance. Both cars scored, neither broke, and the Saturday pace was among the best of the season, so this was no Miami-style collapse. But 14 points from a front row, beaten on strategy by a tyre problem the car has carried all year, is a result that flatters to deceive. On a weekend Ferrari arrived with podium pace, it left third best at best, and the championship picture got worse rather than better.
Positive outcomes
- ▸Ferrari holds P2 in the constructors' championship on 204 points, still clear of McLaren, and Hamilton remains the team's lead scorer and best-placed title hope.
- ▸The qualifying convergence is real and measured: 0.236s off pole is front-row territory, and the development arc that produced it still points the right way.
- ▸The first ADUO engine token is now banked and reliable, with a larger second-token step still to come: the power-unit recovery has begun on track, not just on paper.
Negative outcomes
- ▸Russell's win lifted him above Hamilton, dropping the Ferrari lead car to P3 and locking Mercedes into the top two of the drivers' championship.
- ▸The constructors' math got harder: Mercedes outscored Ferrari 40 to 14 on the day, and McLaren's 18 nibbled at the P2 buffer.
- ▸Leclerc's title case took another quiet hit: a front-row start turned into four points and sixth in the standings, the speed still not translating into Sundays.
The title fight from here
The drivers' title is now effectively a Mercedes civil war: Antonelli leads on 171, Russell second on 131, with Hamilton 46 back in third. Ferrari's realistic route to the crown still runs through Mercedes adversity rather than raw pace.
Silverstone is next, and it matters. Summer push II, a mechanical and suspension package aimed at high-speed direction changes, is built to attack exactly the race-day deficit Austria exposed. If it lands, the Barcelona-to-Silverstone arc becomes a genuine threat; if it does not, the season settles toward damage limitation.
Three sprints remain (British, Dutch, Singapore) for cheap points, and the second ADUO engine token is still to come. The constructors' fight with Mercedes is the more realistic prize, but it needs the Sunday tyre problem solved, and soon.
Box Box
Ferrari team radio
Leclerc · race transmissions
14:12:37 UTC
14:15:10 UTC
Hamilton · race transmissions
13:18:48 UTC
13:24:23 UTC
13:33:01 UTC
13:34:34 UTC
13:43:11 UTC
13:51:18 UTC
▮Audio streamed from the official F1 live-timing archive via OpenF1
Classifica
Race classification
| Pos | Driver | Team | Laps | Gap | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George RUSSELL #63 | Mercedes | 71 | WINNER | 25 |
| 2 | Max VERSTAPPEN #3 | Red Bull Racing | 71 | +1.611s | 18 |
| 3 | Kimi ANTONELLI #12 | Mercedes | 71 | +1.986s | 15 |
| 4 | Oscar PIASTRI #81 | McLaren | 71 | +21.809s | 12 |
| 5 | Lewis HAMILTON #44 | Ferrari | 71 | +26.393s | 10 |
| 6 | Isack HADJAR #6 | Red Bull Racing | 71 | +29.399s | 8 |
| 7 | Lando NORRIS #1 | McLaren | 71 | +31.505s | 6 |
| 8 | Charles LECLERC #16 | Ferrari | 71 | +45.659s | 4 |
| 9 | Liam LAWSON #30 | Racing Bulls | 70 | +1 LAP | 2 |
| 10 | Arvid LINDBLAD #41 | Racing Bulls | 70 | +1 LAP | 1 |
| 11 | Gabriel BORTOLETO #5 | Audi | 70 | +1 LAP | |
| 12 | Nico HULKENBERG #27 | Audi | 70 | +1 LAP | |
| 13 | Pierre GASLY #10 | Alpine | 70 | +1 LAP | |
| 14 | Oliver BEARMAN #87 | Haas F1 Team | 70 | +1 LAP | |
| 15 | Franco COLAPINTO #43 | Alpine | 70 | +1 LAP | |
| 16 | Esteban OCON #31 | Haas F1 Team | 69 | +2 LAPS | |
| 17 | Alexander ALBON #23 | Williams | 69 | +2 LAPS | |
| 18 | Fernando ALONSO #14 | Aston Martin | 68 | +3 LAPS | |
| — | Lance STROLL #18 | Aston Martin | 45 | DNF | |
| — | Carlos SAINZ #55 | Williams | 23 | DNF | |
| — | Sergio PEREZ #11 | Cadillac | 4 | DNF | |
| — | Valtteri BOTTAS #77 | Cadillac | 2 | DNF |
Sabato
Qualifying
| Pos | Driver | Best lap |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | George RUSSELL Mercedes | 1:06.113 |
| 2 | Charles LECLERC Ferrari | 1:06.349 |
| 3 | Lewis HAMILTON Ferrari | 1:06.408 |
| 4 | Kimi ANTONELLI Mercedes | 1:06.414 |
| 5 | Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing | 1:06.475 |
| 6 | Lando NORRIS McLaren | 1:06.502 |
| 7 | Oscar PIASTRI McLaren | 1:06.511 |
| 8 | Isack HADJAR Red Bull Racing | 1:06.632 |
| 9 | Liam LAWSON Racing Bulls | 1:06.955 |
| 10 | Arvid LINDBLAD Racing Bulls | 1:07.007 |
Prove Libere
Free practice
FP1
Free Practice 1
| P | Driver | Best | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ANT | 1:07.796 | — |
| 2 | RUS | 1:07.836 | +0.040 |
| 3 | PIA | 1:07.913 | +0.117 |
| 4 | VER | 1:08.077 | +0.281 |
| 5 | HAM | 1:08.461 | +0.665 |
| 6 | LIN | 1:08.726 | +0.930 |
| 7 | NOR | 1:08.873 | +1.077 |
| 8 | COL | 1:08.962 | +1.166 |
| 9 | BEG | 1:09.054 | +1.258 |
| 10 | BEA | 1:09.071 | +1.275 |
FP2
Free Practice 2
| P | Driver | Best | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ANT | 1:07.014 | — |
| 2 | PIA | 1:07.251 | +0.237 |
| 3 | NOR | 1:07.339 | +0.325 |
| 4 | VER | 1:07.564 | +0.550 |
| 5 | HAM | 1:07.611 | +0.597 |
| 6 | RUS | 1:07.637 | +0.623 |
| 7 | HAD | 1:07.758 | +0.744 |
| 8 | LEC | 1:07.855 | +0.841 |
| 9 | LAW | 1:08.235 | +1.221 |
| 10 | BOR | 1:08.300 | +1.286 |
FP3
Free Practice 3
| P | Driver | Best | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RUS | 1:07.096 | — |
| 2 | ANT | 1:07.134 | +0.038 |
| 3 | HAM | 1:07.211 | +0.115 |
| 4 | PIA | 1:07.344 | +0.248 |
| 5 | NOR | 1:07.360 | +0.264 |
| 6 | VER | 1:07.369 | +0.273 |
| 7 | LEC | 1:07.452 | +0.356 |
| 8 | HAD | 1:07.912 | +0.816 |
| 9 | LAW | 1:08.031 | +0.935 |
| 10 | LIN | 1:08.109 | +1.013 |