Max Verstappen has qualified on pole for tomorrows sprint race at the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix, his third pole position of the season. Less than one tenth of a second separated the Dutch driver from the Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who will start second and third respectively.
The other Red Bull driven by Sergio Perez set the fourth fastest time, but was found to have exceeded track limits at turn 8 during the setting of his fastest Q2 time following a post-session investigation. This drops the Mexican down to 13th on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton brought out a red flag during Q3 after going off and into the barriers at turn 7, eliminating him from contention for the session and seeing him start tomorrows race from ninth on the grid.
His Mercedes teammate George Russel suffered a similar fate less than a minute after the red flag restart, spinning and sliding back-first into the barrier as he entered the main straight at turn 10. Luckily for Russell, the time he had set previously was enough to see him start from fourth following Perez’s relegation.
It was a strong showing from the Haas and Alpine teams, who qualified in the top 10 with both of their cars.
Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren struggled once again, eliminated during Q1 and only managing the 16th fastest time. Also eliminated were the two Aston Martin’s of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, the Williams of Nicholas Latifi and the Alfa Romeo of Guanyu Zhou.
The other McLaren of Lando Norris was eliminated in Q2, making a miserable day even worse for the manufacturer. Norris had also brought out a red flag during the days only practice session after smoke emerged from below his driver’s seat.
Track limits at turn 10 challenged drivers and resulted in several lap times being deleted. The speed advantage gained from running wide on this corner is seen to also benefit car speed at the start of the next lap. As a result, the current lap time and the next lap time are both deleted.
The sprint race tonight will decide the starting grid for Sunday’s feature race, as well as giving championship points to each of the top eight place getters. This race acts as a second chance for teams like McLaren and Mercedes, where a strong showing will move them up the grid for the main event.
The sprint starts at 2.30am NZ time, with the feature race at 1am on Monday morning.