Max Verstappen has qualified on pole for Monday morning’s Austrian Grand Prix, the championship leader keeping his nerve to pip Charles Leclerc as track limits violations hurt a number of drivers.
Verstappen set the fastest lap of Q3 on his final run with three purple sectors, only for a trailing Leclerc to go fastest in sector two but fall just 0.048 seconds short of top spot, still earning a front-row start.
Carlos Sainz was the best of the Ferraris, going third quickest, while Lando Norris qualified fourth in his McLaren, which is running with a significant upgrade package.
Lewis Hamilton will start fifth, next to Lance Stroll, who topped Fernando Alonso for just the second time this season to earn a third-row start despite losing his opening Q3 time for a track limits violation.
Alonso will start from the fourth row in seventh, next to Nico Hulkenberg, who qualified as the best of the Haas.
Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon round out the top 10, the latter also losing his first Q3 time due to track limits.
Verstappen and Sergio Perez were pressured in Q2, both drivers having their first times deleted for running too wide out of the final corner. While the defending champion was able to recover, his teammate wasn’t, losing another lap and failing to set a representative time in the session as a result. He will start from 15th.
George Russell, Estebean Ocon, Oscar Piastri and Valtteri Bottas were the other drivers eliminated from Q2, with Ocon and Bottas both also losing their best times. Ocon’s best lap would have seen him progress to Q3, while Bottas would have still been eliminated but started from further ahead.
Piastri’s McLaren is not running with the same upgrades as his teammate.
Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanya, Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen and Nyck de Vries were the drivers knocked out in Q1.
Verstappen was investigated post-qualifying for impeding Magnussen in Q1 but was cleared of this and will keep his pole position.
The Austrian Grand Prix begins at 1.00 am on Monday morning, following tonight’s Sprint Shootout and Sprint Race at 10 pm and 2 am, respectively.
