Max Verstappen narrowly beats Lando Norris to Austrian GP sprint pole
Max Verstappen edges Lando Norris to pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race.
Max Verstappen narrowly beat Lando Norris to claim pole position for the F1 Austrian Grand Prix sprint race.
It looked as though Norris had done enough to take pole in what turned out to be a one-lap shootout in SQ3, but Red Bull’s Verstappen produced a marginally quicker lap to pip his rival by just 0.093s.
It marks championship leader Verstappen's sixth straight pole at the Red Bull Ring.
The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri was third-fastest, three-tenths slower than Verstappen.
George Russell ended up fourth while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz split the Mercedes duo, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton sixth.
Sergio Perez could only put his Red Bull seventh and finished a huge 1.3s adrift of teammate Verstappen.
The Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were next in eighth and ninth, while Charles Leclerc ran out of time to set a lap after his Ferrari briefly conked out at the end of the pitlane.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen will start 11th, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll alongside him in 12th.
The newly re-signed Stroll once again outpaced teammate Fernando Alonso, who was 13th, ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.
After progressing into SQ2, Logan Sargeant was the slowest in the session and ended up 15th for Williams.
Daniel Ricciardo, under pressure to retain his RB seat for next year, could only take 16th ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas.
Alex Albon could not replicate his usual qualifying heroics as he struggled to 19th in his Williams. The British-born Thai will be joined on the back row of the sprint race grid by the second Sauber of Zhou Guanyu.
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