What a tricky day: Lewis Hamilton after taking pole in rainy Red Bull Ring
Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton thrived in the rainy conditions at the Red Bull Ring to put Mercedes in the pole position for the first Styrian Grand Prix. Hamilton powered through with a time that was 1.216 seconds faster than Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
This is Hamilton's 89th pole in his Formula 1 career. His teammate Valtteri Bottas finished fourth while McLaren's Carlos Sainz finished a career-best third.
"What a tricky day," said the champion after a performance that his team boss Toto Wolff hailed as simply out of this world.
"The weather was incredibly difficult out there for all of us. A lot of the time you couldn't even see where you were going.
"I had a big aquaplane at one point -- I definitely had my heart in my mouth -- but I was able to improve and put in a nice, clean lap. I love these days."
"Very rarely do you see performances that are just not from this world," said Wolff.
"When you look at the onboard from his lap, he was balancing the car on the edge, aquaplaning, throttle control was incredible.
"And I can't remember that we have seen 1.2 seconds between first and second," added the Austrian.
Bottas was 1.4 seconds slower than Hamilton and Mercedes said that he had suffered glazing on his car's front right brake disc that affected performance.
