Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have crashed out in qualifying at the F1 Austrian Grand Prix.
The two Mercedes drivers were in the final stage of qualifying and had already secured their places in the top ten for tomorrow's sprint race.
Hamilton crashed into the barriers on turn 7 after spinning out of control, much to the delight of the cheering Red Bull F1 fans.
lewis hamilton’s crash during q3 💔#AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/sO8yMGcind
— ash (@lovesferrari) July 8, 2022
The session was red-flagged and delayed for 11 minutes before it could restart. Once it did, Hamilton's teammate Russell also spun out of control on the final turn and the race was red-flagged once more.
Despite their crashes, Russell would ultimately finish fifth in qualifying, and Hamilton would slot in in tenth. A penalty after qualifying for Red Bull's Sergio Perez promoted the Mercedes pair to fourth and ninth respectively.
The top three are Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz.
F1 Qualifying Reaction
Following the race, the overall leader and reigning F1 champion Verstappen gave his thoughts on qualifying.
"It was a very long wait between the two runs. That's never great once you're in a rhythm; you want to keep going.
"Also, the track temperature is dropping, the wind is picking up a little bit. In the end it was a really tight qualifying and it's a really challenging track to get qualifying right.
"Very happy with pole but I also know tomorrow and Sunday you can get the points."
Charles Leclerc also spoke to the media after securing second place on the grid.
"I think we are all three very close. On the last lap I struggled to bring the tyres back [to temperature] after a long time in the pits and Max was just a little bit quicker. Congrats to him and hopefully we'll have an exciting race tomorrow.
"I just want to have a clean race. We had five races that were a little bit of a disaster from my side. I just hope that we can finally score the points that we deserve."
SEE ALSO: F1 Sprint Explained: How Will The Austrian Race Work?
