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Qualifying report

It's an all Williams front row with Massa on pole in Austria!

Williams shocked us all and took both first and second for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

Polesitter Felipe Massa, second place Valtteri Bottas, third place Nico Rosberg

Felipe Massa will start a Grand Prix from pole position for the first time since 2008 this weekend. In a shocking turn-of-events, the Williams team knocked off the Mercedes powerhouse and ended their pole-winning streak. For Massa, it's his 16th career pole start.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas finished the Williams lock out of the front row in P2, just 9/100ths off the fastest time. This is the first time Williams has locked out the entire front row since the 2003 German Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas, Williams FW36
Valtteri Bottas, Williams FW36

Photo by: XPB Images

The final two corners got a lot of people in trouble during this qualifying session. Both Valtteri Bottas and Adrian Sutil had Q1 times excluded when they ran off in the second-to-last corner. In Q2, Fernando Alonso had a dodgy moment out of the final turn when he went tearing through the grass. His car also hit a bump fairly violently. That same bump sent Perez airborne in FP3.

Adrian Sutil, Esteban Gutierrez, Jules Bianchi, Kamui Kobayashi, Max Chilton, and Marcus Ericsson were the drivers eliminated in Q1. Q2 saw Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus place 13th, his highest qualifying effort of the season. Soon afterwards however, he found himself drifting off into a gravel trap.

Pastor Maldonado, Lotus F1 E21 runs wide off the circuit
Pastor Maldonado, Lotus F1 E21 runs wide off the circuit

Photo by: XPB Images

Maldonado was not the biggest story coming out of Q2 though. No, that was Sebastian Vettel, and for all the wrong reasons. The quadruple World Champion failed to advance to the final round, placing 12th on the grid. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo went on to qualify fifth. A very dejected Vettel wasn't in the mood for talking, basically saying, "It is what it is." When asked why he failed to advance, Seb simply replied, "Not quick enough or else we would have made it into Q3." As if failing to advance wasn't bad enough, it happened at the Red Bull Ring of all places.

Sergio Perez, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Pastor Maldonado, Jean-Eric Vergne, and Romain Grosjean were the six drivers who's dreams of an Austrian GP pole ended in Q2.

Q3 was quite an epic duel for pole position. All eyes were on Mercedes once again, and said eyes caught a glimpse of some pretty ugly stuff. Lewis Hamilton had a time excluded for exceeding the track limits and when he went back out to give it another shot, he spun. Hamilton will start P10. His teammate Nico Rosberg clocked in third, behind the incredibly impressive Williams duo.

Bottas held pole until the final seconds when Massa put up that flier. Bottas did not get a chance to respond after running into the dirt on his final lap. Felipe was obviously very emotional and during the post-qualifying press conference, his eyes were still full of joyful tears.

The complete top ten is as follows - Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Hulkenberg.

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