2022 Austrian GP Qualifying Update and Tips – JP
2022 Austrian GP Qualifying Update
It is almost time for the first qualifying session of the weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix. Check out James Punt’s ante-post preview for the big race here. His 2022 Austrian GP Qualifying Update and betting tips are below.
2022 Austrian GP Qualifying
We have had just the one free practice session before the qualifying session this afternoon. Getting a good number of trouble free laps in was a must and most did. Lando Norris stopped on track, and he was only able to manage 12, setting the slowest time, compared to Verstappen who completed 34 tours and was fastest. Teammate Ricciardo was having his own woes with his rear wing DRS flap oscillating badly and he was only 17th, some 1.441 off the ultimate pace. McLaren have some work to do to get their cars sorted for qualifying.
Charles Leclerc was second fastest, 0.255 off Verstappen. On a short lap, that is a healthy margin. Next best was Russell 0.400 slower than Max.
Charles Leclerc has prodigious one lap pace and it looks to be between the big two once again. We have had four qualifying sessions here in the last two years. Verstappen has been on pole twice, second once and third. Leclerc never better than 7th. Clearly this is a Max track and while Leclerc is the leading qualifier in 2022, he is up against it here.
There are no tricky conditions to factor in today, just a normal qualifying session on a dry track. I would say that Verstappen gets his pole position, and he is the 1.57 to do so. Those odds are hard to argue with.
Russell Interesting
The bet of interest is Russell to out qualify Hamilton. They are 5-5 in 2022 and at 1.85 each, those odds look about right, but Hamilton has struggled against teammates here in the past. In the last four qualifying sessions he was 2-2 with Bottas, while Russell dragged his Williams into Q3 here last year and 11th in the Stryian GP qualifying a week later. He also qualified 12th in the 2020 Stryian GP qualifier.
It is not huge value but I like to oppose Hamilton on this track and Russell was 0.207 faster in FP1. The team say that Hamilton will adopt some of Russell’s setup for qualifying, which may be enough but I’ll have a modest bet on the man they used to call Mr. Saturday.
