Austrian Grand Prix Qualifying: WILLIAMS front row – Massa on pole

Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg – the front three in Austria

The writing was perhaps on the wall for the Mercedes domination of the 2014 F1 season after the Canadian Grand Prix, and the writing is now loud and proud for Williams as they lock out the front row for the Austrian Grand Prix tomorrow. Massa has taken pole – his first pole for six years – with team mate Valtteri Bottas just 0.087 seconds behind as Williams took advantage of errors from Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, which also compromised Nico Rosberg, creating a Williams front row in the process.

Hamilton’s first run didn’t count because he took all four wheels over the white line at turn eight, and he skidded out on his next quick lap, leaving him dead last in final qualifying but starting ninth after Nico Hulkenberg’s disqualification.

Behind the Williams, championship leader Nico Rosberg managed to salvage some credibility for Mercedes by taking third spot and Fernando Alonso was a credible fourth in his Ferrari.

Daniel Ricciardo put his Red Bull in fifth spot – team mate Sebastian vettel could only manage 13th – Kevin Magnussen took sixth for McLaren (Jenson Button is in 12th), Daniil Kvyat was seventh for Toro Rosso and an unimpressive Kimi Raikkonen in eighth.

It’s a properly mixed-up grid for tomorrow, and whether or not Williams manage to turn their front row in to a solid result or not, it’s a big wake-up call for Mercedes.

And with Hamilton and Vettel – and even Button – well down the grid, we could be in for a cracking 2014 Austrian Grand Prix.

By Cars UK