Mercedes driver George Russell has denied his team-mate and Components 1 championship chief Kimi Antonelli a clear sweep of Austrian GP follow classes, with Russell pipping the Italian in ultimate follow as Lewis Hamilton impressed for Ferrari.
Mercedes was handed its first grand prix defeat of 2026 by Hamilton and Ferrari in Barcelona, whereas McLaren appeared prefer it might pose the strongest problem to the Silver Arrows at a sizzling Purple Bull Ring on Friday. However in Saturday afternoon’s ultimate follow forward of qualifying, Mercedes confirmed few indicators of its one-lap benefit disappearing as Russell pipped Antonelli within the ultimate minutes of the session.
After a sluggish begin to proceedings within the oppressive Styrian warmth, with temperatures once more simply clearing 30C, reigning world champion Lando Norris acquired the qualifying sims underway with a 1m07.832s effort after quarter-hour. That was comfortably quickest at that stage, with Hamilton and Russell each unable to the touch Norris’ benchmark early on.
Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri fared higher, and was simply half a tenth off the Briton till championship chief Antonelli put Mercedes on prime with a 1m07.533s lap. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc quickly demoted Russell to go second, simply 0.155s off Antonelli’s benchmark.
Max Verstappen had gone fourth within the closely upgraded Purple Bull RB22, which meant the highest 4 groups have been all coated by simply over three tenths on the midway mark of the session, with simply the second Purple Bull of Isack Hadjar lacking from that prime eight battle.
Russell improved to get inside 0.017s of Antonelli, providing a quick glimpse of a decent intra-Mercedes battle in a while, till Antonelli retaliated with an enormous 1m07.134s lap to place extra daylight in between the pair. In equity to Russell, he reported “actually dangerous straight-line braking on the entrance axle” into Flip 3, which exaggerated the hole to the Italian teenager.
Lewis Hamilton was the quickest non-Mercedes driver within the session
Picture by: Eric Le Galliot
Heading into the final spherical of qualifying sims within the ultimate quarter-hour, Antonelli could not enhance on his chart-topping time, which left the door open for Hamilton to take second simply 0.077s in arrears, forward of a sliding Russell, Norris and Verstappen. Leclerc was lacking from that battle after locking up the fronts at Flip 3, aborting his first flyer after which not enhancing on his broken tyres.
Within the dying minutes of the session Russell lastly set a 1m17.096s to go prime, 0.038s forward of Antonelli to which the Italian was unable to reply, peeling into the pitlane after delivery time within the first two sectors.
Hamilton took third with a 1m07.211s, simply over a tenth behind, to arrange an intriguing qualifying session. McLaren did not look as sturdy because it did on Friday, as Piastri and Norris settled for fourth and fifth, just below three tenths adrift, and narrowly holding off sixth-placed Verstappen.
Whereas Hamilton managed to make vital enhancements after Ferrari was left wanting for grip on Friday, Leclerc fared little higher as he was down in seventh, 0.356s off Russell.
There was an enormous, half-second hole to eighth-placed Hadjar, who complained of a tough-to-drive Purple Bull as he locked up repeatedly in Turns 1 and three.
Within the midfield battle, Racing Bulls lower a powerful determine with Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad each making it into the highest 10. The pair goes into qualifying with a slight edge on Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, whereas Audi additionally appears to be like like a factors contender.
On the backside of the order there have been no miracles for Aston Martin, as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll propped up the timesheets properly behind Haas, Williams and Cadillac.
F1 Austrian GP: FP3 outcomes
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