Austria - Qualifying

After the highs and lows of the shorter sprint in the hot, morning air, we are back with the 20 drivers for an action-packed quali. 

Verstappen, used to being in front of everyone else, was the first to drive out onto the track and set a time to beat. Most teams were quick to leave the pits, with the one exception being Mercedes who kept both drivers in their garages for a while longer so they could drive out onto a 'better-prepared track'. In previous years, Red Bull Ring has been known for making drivers exceed track limits and collect penalties. Even though this year gravel has been put on the sides of the track to prevent it, Tsunoda did cross the white border and had his lap time deleted. One of the Haas drivers also faced troubles: Hulkenberg was noted for not following instructions in the pit lane. With the track ever-evolving, the times we saw only got shorter. In general, Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari occupied the top spots. There was one outlier between them: Kevin Magnussen, who finished the session 5th. Albon, Stroll, Bottas, Sargeant, and Zhou made up the elimination zone. 

Q2 saw the Ferraris and Alpines hit the track before all other teams. The standout star of the second session was, without a doubt, Max Verstappen. The Dutchman set an incredible time that, by the time everyone had a chance to get a lap on the board, was over 0.4s quicker than anyone else's. It was only beaten by his own improvement which was 0.5s quicker than the effort of Sainz in second. Ricciardo, Gasly, Magnussen, Tsunoda, and Alonso finished their day before the third round of qualifying. 

Hamilton began Q3 with an incident that was noted by race control when he tried to leave the pits while his car was still connected to some machinery, which was classified as an unsafe release. This time Verstappen wasn't the first one on track, but he was the first one to set a time to beat. He continued to dominate the track, a statement that cannot be said about his teammate whose first effort was over a second slower than that of the crowd favourite. Leclerc faced issues during his second push lap as he went off-piste and straight into the gravel, damaging his floor and ending his hopes of starting on the front row. 

Verstappen scored his 40th career pole and the 5th pole in a row when it comes to the Austrian Grand Prix. His final time was a stunning 1:04:314, 0.4s quicker than that of Norris who came in second. Piastri's good lap pushed him into third but not for long, as it was deleted for exceeding track limits. That put the young McLaren diver at P7. 

Order of the grid:

1. Max Verstappen

2. Lando Norris

3. George Russel

4. Carlos Sainz

5. Lewis Hamilton

6. Charles Leclerc

7. Oscar Piastri

8. Sergio Perez. 

9. Nico Hulkenberg

10. Esteban Ocon

11. Daniel Ricciardo

12. Pierre Gasly

13. Kevin Magnussen

14. Yuki Tsunoda

15. Fernando Alonso

16. Alex Albon

17. Lance Stroll

18. Valtteri Bottas

19. Logan Sargeant

20. Zhou Guanyu