Formula 1 News: Verstappen Secures Pole Position for Austrian Sprint Ahead of McLaren Pair
In a thrilling Sprint Qualifying session, Max Verstappen stormed to the top of the timesheets, securing pole position for the Austrian Sprint ahead of the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
With every driver in SQ3 posting just one flying lap in the final minutes, the pressure was on to deliver. Verstappen rose to the challenge, pumping in a time of 1m 04.686s in the Red Bull to go just 0.093s clear of McLaren’s Norris in second.
Piastri took third, with the Mercedes of George Russell slotting into fourth ahead of the lead Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in fifth. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton will share the third row with the Spaniard in sixth place.
- Sergio Perez put his Red Bull in P7, ahead of the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in P8 and P9 respectively.
- Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, had a disastrous end to Sprint Qualifying, failing to set a time after stopping in the pit lane before being unable to cross the line before the chequered flag, leaving him in P10.
The rest of the field saw Kevin Magnussen just miss out on SQ3 in the Haas, being less than one tenth off in P11, while Aston Martin saw both of their cars out of the segment, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso qualifying in P12 and P13 respectively.
Yuki Tsunoda took 14th, following on from the team’s tough weekend last time out in Barcelona, while Logan Sargeant will start from 15th for Williams, though a positive for the American was that he managed to out-qualify team mate Alex Albon.
Daniel Ricciardo faced an early exit after failing to progress beyond P16 in the RB, with the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg also seeing his day end in SQ1, the German set to line up in P17.
The Kick Sauber duo of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will start from 18th and 20th respectively, the team’s first point of the year still eluding them, while Albon is sandwiched between them in 19th.
After a busy sole practice hour earlier in the day – which was briefly interrupted when Verstappen’s RB20 stopped on track, before he later rejoined the session – the drivers returned to action later on Friday for Sprint Qualifying, ready to decide the grid for Saturday’s Sprint.
The Sprint is scheduled to take place at 1200 local time on Saturday, and fans can catch the action on the RACE HUB. Stay tuned for more Formula 1 news and updates throughout the weekend.
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