Join Jonny Reynolds for a quick-fire run through all of the big F1 headlines from Friday in Austria, including a full recap of sprint qualifying and news of a feud between Christian Horner and Jos Verstappen.
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The Athletic. Hello there and welcome along to the Race F1 Briefing for Friday the 28th of June 2024. I'm Johnny Reynolds and on today's episode I'll be bringing you up to speed on everything that happened on the first day of track running in Austria, including a super close spring qualifying session. So let's get cracking. Yes with this being a sprint weekend the teams and drivers had minimal time to get up to speed in Spielberg with just one practice session happening before spring qualifying on Friday afternoon. And we'll jump straight into that because once again we were treated to a super close, super competitive session where pole position was decided in the final seconds. In the end that coveted P1 spot went to Max Verstappen but the gap couldn't have been closer to Lando Norris in P2, with just 0.093 seconds separating the Red Bull from the McLaren over a flying lap of the 2.7 mile Red Bull Ring. Oscar Piaestri took P3 in the second McLaren, 3 tenths down on Verstappen and will be joined on the second row of the spring grid by Mercedes George Russell. Carlos Sainz bagged fifth for Ferrari ahead of the other Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton who had a scruffy run to P6 and the top 10 was completed by Red Bull Sergio Perez in 7th, the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasley in 8th and 9th and the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc in 10th but more on him in a moment. Yes the big story of spring qualifying was the misfortune that struck Charles Leclerc in SQ3 when the Ferrari driver was left momentarily stranded at the end of the pit lane when his engine appeared to cut out. Leclerc got going again but despite his best efforts he failed to make it around to start a flying lap before the checkered flag was thrown. Leclerc said afterwards "I don't know what happened, I was in the pit lane and I got the anti-stool and then everything switched off." He added "We weren't super strong but definitely better than P10 so it's a bit disappointing. We'll look at what happened and tomorrow we'll try to have a good sprint race to come back in the front." Leclerc was however far from the only high profile driver left frustrated as we'll hear in a moment. The Race F1 Briefing Yes another driver far from happy after spring qualifying was Red Bull Sergio Perez who was the big loser of the game of brinkmanship at the start of the final runs when everyone left it as late as possible to hit the track. The Mexican ended up having to do his final lap sandwiched between the Alpene driver's Estebanoc on and Pierre Gasly and as a result he could do no better than 7th, six places down on his team mate. The first seven drivers to start their laps were in a reasonable space but there was never going to be enough time for the final three drivers in the queue leaving the pits to be ideally spaced. As Ed Stroll reports Perez was in a frustrating position. He was aware that he was tight on time and had to push up close to Ocon in order to ensure he made it to the line in time whilst at the same time he knew he couldn't let the chasing Gasly get past. He started his lap with three seconds remaining but spent it bunched up behind the Frenchman and was thus unable to maximise his pace. As we've seen these kinds of situations happen regularly now in F1 and illustrate the problem of cars being sent out of the garage late in search of the best track conditions. Let's see if we get a similar scenario in qualifying tomorrow. We'll get back to Friday's headlines in a moment but first of all I want to speak to you about the Formula One Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix. This is a race that I unashamedly love and let's be honest there are so many reasons to love it. The home of the Formula One night race is one of the season's toughest battles setting grueling humidity and high temperatures making it a true test for both cars and drivers. Simply put it's three days of pure gripping action that is backdrops against the glistening Singapore skyline which boasts both iconic heritage buildings and modern architecture. The World Connected Circuit is conveniently located near six train stations and is a stone throw away from hotels, cultural and heritage sites, shopping malls, food and entertainment options. See it for yourself. There are still single and three day tickets available for the 2024 race with prices starting at 128 Singapore dollars. Just head to SingaporeGP.sg to make your selection and book your place at one of the sporting events of the year. The Singapore Grand Prix, nothing else comes close. So it's Verstappen, the championship leader who has won 9-14 sprint so far who will start yet another race from P1 in Austria. But while he was making waves on track his father Yoss was making headlines off it. Now is no secret that Christian Horner has found himself firmly in the spotlight on multiple occasions this season. But why he was having to deflect at the Austrian Grand Prix might be the weirdest situation yet. Yes as Scott Mitchell-Mann reports, what's been mostly a private dispute between Team Boss Horner and Yoss Verstappen has been fully dragged into the public eye in Spielberg. Yoss Verstappen was due to participate in the annual Legends demonstration at the Red Bull Ring, driving the 2012 title winning RB8s. But he then told Dutch newspaper Datellograph he had stood down from driving because he had heard Horner had moved to block him from participating. It has been suggested in the Red Bull Ring paddock that there was a dispute over whether Red Bull wanted Yoss Verstappen to be filmed as part of the parade. And while Horner has denied vetoing anything, Yoss Verstappen has taken it to be targeted interference with his participation. That led to the unusual public spat through the media on Friday with Verstappen's comments then being put to Horner, who avoided responding directly but did issue several thinly veiled digs. Horner also insisted his relationship with Max has "always been very good and strong" and "he's the one who's important to have a strong relationship with". He then added "I've never had an issue with any of our drivers' fathers in the past, and whatever Yoss's issues are, I've really got nothing to comment on". The question most people are asking of course is whether this dispute will put Max's Red Bull future into doubt. Crucial to any post-2020 decisions are both Yoss and Max's long-term manager Raymond Vermeulen. So does a strained relationship with Yoss make a Mercedes move any more likely for Max? That was another theme of questioning fired at Horner, who thinks Toto-Wolf's continuing efforts to attract Verstappen to Mercedes is purely a distraction tactic. Horner closed off the line of questioning by quipping that if Toto does want to Verstappen for next year, I guess Yoss is potentially available. Before we sign off this episode, let's take a look at how things are shaping up from a performance point of view. As Mark Hughes reports on the race website, on the basis of sprint qualifying, the Red Bull Ring is looking kinder to Max Verstappen and Red Bull than Barcelona. His SQ3 advantage over the McLaren of Lando Norris was just under 0.1 seconds, but that was with a harder preparation lap than ideal for the soft tyres. On the mediums used in SQ1 and SQ2, Verstappen's margin was in the order of 0.3 to 0.4 seconds. What accounts for the Red Bull's more comfortable margin around here than was the case in Barcelona? Well, in essence, when looking in detail at how the laps were delivered, its aero efficiency was more telling here, particularly with the RS deployed. But simply, a lap of the Red Bull Ring is more drag-sensitive than that of Barcelona. Red Bull was able to run with slightly more rear-wing than McLaren, knowing its superior DRS performance would claw back more than was lost to the McLaren in the non-DRS part of the straights, while enjoying the greater downforce of the bigger wing in the slower corners. Verstappen also reported that his car was so well balanced, and this is in stark contrast to the major setup readings necessary in both Imola and Barcelona. Over a qualifying lap, Mercedes was not quite the force it had been in Montreal or even Barcelona, especially in the low-speed corners, and Lewis Hamilton was hampered further in spring qualifying by an off-at-term one that damaged his floor to the tune of around 0.2 seconds of aero loss. Mercedes was, though, better than Ferrari. The Italian team's car was at its best through the middle sector, but was a significant chunk slower than Verstappen and Norris in the first and third sectors. So it's Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and then Ferrari as far as the top four order goes, but will the teams be organised in the same way come the end of the sprint race tomorrow? Let's weigh and see. And that's about it for this episode, I'll be back tomorrow, with a jam-packed recap of a busy day in Austria which includes the sprint race and qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix. In the meantime, do yourself a favour and stop doom-scrolling on social media, and get yourself over to the hyphenrace.com, where we have loads of in-depth articles and long reads that will keep you entertained and informed for hours. Until tomorrow, goodbye. As you've probably heard by now, we've teamed up with BedMGM this season, we'll be using BedMGM lines to make all of our picks, and we'll have special offers for our listeners each week. 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