Verstappen outpaces McLaren duo to secure pole for Austrian Grand Prix Sprint

Max Verstappen edged McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to secure pole position for Saturday’s Austrian Grand Prix Sprint race.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen went on from a solid morning practice session to top all parts of the Sprint qualifying Shootout and secure pole position for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix Sprint at Spielberg, Austria.

Lando Norris was a close second while the second McLaren of Piastri ended up third fastest. Behind them was George Russell in fourth, with Carlos Sainz fifth and Lewis Hamilton sixth ahead of Sergio Perez.

Disaster struck for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who lost drive as he made his way out of the pits and ran out of time to set a lap. He will start in P10 behind Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

At Red Bull’s home race, Verstappen would have been keen to flex his muscles and the Dutchman went less than tenth quicker than Russell in SQ1. There was a repeat in SQ2 as the Dutchman led the Brit at the top again with a 1:05.186, while four different teams taking the top four spots to underline the increased competition.

But Verstappen, whose mechanics worked to fix an issue with his rear wing, roared to pole by going 0.09 seconds quicker than Norris with a 1.04.686 – half a second quicker than his SQ2 time – to send the crowd into pandemonium in Spielberg.

As the 20 drivers set out on the medium tyres with only 12 minutes of running due to the sprint qualifying conditions, timing would be everything in setting the lap time due to track evolution and potential yellow flags.

His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton did not have such a comfortable ride, however, after dipping his car into the gravel at Turn 8 and having his time deleted. Hamilton was left up against it with only one opportunity to get himself out of the drop zone and his lap time was far convincing as he battled his way past traffic.

But the 39-year-old managed to squeeze through in P13 with Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and Zhou Guanyu knocked out. In a shock result at Williams, Logan Sargeant out-qualified Albon for only the second time.

Only eight of the 15 drivers went for more than one lap in SQ2, highlighting the need to save tyre sets for the race. And that proved to be costly for Aston Martin, with both Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso knocked out as Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon squeezed into SQ3.

2024 F1 Austrian Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying Results