Max Verstappen dominated Saturday’s proceedings at the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, winning the Sprint race from the pole before qualifying fastest for this evening’s Grand Prix.
The three-time World Champion was made to work for his spoils in the Sprint, with the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri piling on the pressure over the early stages.
Norris went with the Red Bull off the start and briefly moved into the lead with a bold dive at Turn 3 on Lap 5, only to run wide a corner later and allow Verstappen a way back through.
Piastri took advantage of the battle at the front to run side-by-side with his teammate for second over the following corners and took the position at Turn 6.
Piastri initially went with Verstappen, but once he was out of DRS range, the reigning Champion pulled clear to a comfortable 4.616s victory.
Norris clawed back the difference to his teammate and challenged for second late in the race but settled for third, some three seconds ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.
Russell passed Sainz at Turn 4 on Lap 8 of 23 for fourth, but Lewis Hamilton could not follow and was forced to settle for sixth, behind the Ferrari driver he will replace next season.
Charles Leclerc climbed from tenth on the grid and into the points in seventh, finishing four seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who completed the points-paying positions.
Verstappen’s pace carried over into Grand Prix qualifying, with the Dutchman comfortably progressing to Q3 before putting nearly four-tenths on the field to claim pole.
“It was a good day today,” said Verstappen. “I am extremely happy that we got P1 in the Sprint and put it on pole in Qualifying and am really proud of the Team that we were able to be so competitive.
“We definitely saw some good improvements after the Sprint race. It all connected, and the balance of the car felt a lot better, so hopefully, we can keep that going.
“I could really push to the limit and it felt great to be that competitive in qualifying. The whole session went really well, and the car was in a better window; I could push harder, the car was sticking, and I am actually quite surprised by the gap!
“It shows that small changes that you make to the car can really make a difference. I am looking forward to tomorrow. We have had a really good weekend so far but the most important part has to happen tomorrow, so let’s see what the race brings.”
Norris qualified second, ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, who then had his best lap taken away for a controversial track limits call.
Piastri’s relegation to seventh promoted George Russell to the top three, and he’ll start off the second row of the grid next to Sainz.
Hamilton and Leclerc make up the third row, ahead of Piastri and Sergio Perez, the latter of whom qualified nearly one second adrift of his teammate.
Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon complete the top ten.
An under pressure Daniel Ricciardo narrowly missed out on progressing to Q3 and starts 11th, outqualifying teammate Yuki Tsunoda by three places.
Fernando Alonso starts from 15th, and Lance Stroll 17th.
The Austrian Grand Prix begins at 1.00 am and will be shown live on Sky Sport.
Header Image: Getty Images/ Red Bull Content Pool
