Austrian GP: Norris pole, super Leclerc brings Ferrari back to the front row

SPIELBERG (AUSTRIA). Finally a Saturday as a protagonist . If Lando Norris had no rivals, bringing McLaren back to pole position in Austria 25 years after the last one signed by Mika Hakkinen, it is Ferrari that smiles in Spielberg. For the Reds it is the best qualifying of the season: a great Charles Leclerc conquered the third front row of 2025 after Bahrain (in that case thanks to a penalty to George Russell) and Monte Carlo , while Lewis Hamilton placed himself in second, where he had never pushed himself in the previous 10 races dressed in red. The yellow flag at the end of Q3 helped , of course, conditioning the last attempt of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen – even 7th behind former teammate Liam Lawson (now at Racing Bulls) after five consecutive poles on Red Bull's home track -, but few would have predicted an SF-25 in the middle of the McLarens. Considering that race pace is the strong point of the Reds, Charles and Lewis can imagine an attacking race for once . It is proof that the new floor, the long-awaited update brought here to Austria, is working. Behind Lewis is George Russell, while Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes took the checkered flag at the end and had to settle for 9th place.

Charles: «I'm satisfied, I hope to put pressure on McLaren»

"Yes, I am very satisfied - Leclerc comments -, it has been a complicated season for us so far and this is a good result. The team continues to push, we have brought new parts and I thank everyone for the great work done ". Charles dreams of the first success of 2025, which would be a nice reward after so much suffering: "I did a good lap, we know that we usually have a better race pace than in qualifying and we hope to put pressure on whoever starts in front ". It is Lando , who, fresh from the disaster in Canada - the collision with his teammate that cost him retirement - had no alternatives to keep his chances of the World Championship alive. He is on his 12th pole on as many different circuits, achieved thanks to a monster lap, half a second faster than everyone else: " Everything went well but now there is a job to finish ". Looking at who occupies the first two rows, Luca Montezemolo will also be satisfied, the man who symbolizes many triumphs of the Reds in the eras of Niki Lauda and especially Michael Schumacher, who yesterday joined the board of McLaren Automotive with the appointment among the directors of McLaren Group Holdings Limited. "My heart is and will always remain red," Montezemolo commented today, "I have become a member of the board of McLaren Automotive, which produces road cars and does not deal with F1."