Verstappen clinches pole even as the Mercedes drivers crash at the Austrian Grand Prix 

Max Verstappen clinched pole position at the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. The Dutchman will start in pole position in the Sprint race on Saturday afternoon.

Charles Leclerc was in second position, just 0.029 seconds slower than Verstappen. Carlos Sainz was in third position with less than one-hundredths of a second separating the top three drivers.

Sergio Pérez and George Russell rounded off the top five positions in the qualification session.

Both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Russell, crashed and brought the red flags out in the final qualification session.

The qualifying session started under clear skies with air temperatures at 18 degrees C and track temperatures at 32 degrees C in very windy conditions.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C3), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C4), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C5), the softest range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Q1: Aston Martin drivers knocked out

In the windy conditions, the drivers found it difficult to keep the car within the track limits.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, had their quick laps deleted and found themselves in the drop zone.

They were joined by Daniel Ricciardo, Zhou Guanyu and Nicholas Latifi in the bottom five in the time sheets.

Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen were at the top of the time charts and Hamilton showed pace and looked as if he could challenge for pole position

Q1 dropzone: Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyu, Nicholas Latifi, Sebastian Vettel

Q2: Bottas and Norris knocked out

Lando Norris found it difficult to keep the car on the track as he struggled with braking in the windy conditions and was eliminated.

Yuki Tsunoda also ran wide at Turn 1 on his final run to botch up his lap amid angry screams on team radio.

Pérez made it into the final session of qualification (Q3) in the dying minutes of the session as he finally set a timed lap to take sixth position. But even that lap is under investigation for exceeding track limits.

The session ended with Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton at the top of the time charts.

Q2 dropzone: Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris

Q3: Verstappen takes pole for the sprint race

The last all-important twelve minutes of the top ten shootout started with pole position being contested by Verstappen, Sainz and Leclerc.

Verstappen took provisional pole position ahead of Leclerc. Hamilton seemed to be in the hunt for pole for the first time this season.

After slotting into eighth position on his first timed lap, Hamilton crashed heavily and brought out the red flags. The crash was greeted by cheers from the orange-clad Dutch fans.

When the session resumed, Russell went out first but the Briton hit the barriers and suffered a damaged rear-wing. The session was again red-flagged.

When the session resumed with less than three minutes to go, Leclerc with a quick final sector snatched provisional pole from Verstappen. Sainz slotted into second position.

But Verstappen edged Leclerc to take his third consecutive pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The two Haas F1 drivers followed up their good showing at Silverstone with a top ten finish.

The Sprint race tomorrow afternoon will decide the starting grid for the race on Sunday.

Top 10: Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Pérez, George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Mick Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton

2022 Austrian Grand Prix Qualification Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:05.852	1:05.374	1:04.984	19
2	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:05.419	1:05.287	1:05.013	26
3	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:05.660	1:05.576	1:05.066	26
4	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:06.143	1:05.805	1:05.404	24
5	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:06.235	1:05.697	1:05.431	24
6	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:06.468	1:05.993	1:05.726	27
7	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:06.366	1:05.894	1:05.879	22
8	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:06.405	1:06.151	1:06.011	22
9	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:06.016	1:06.082	1:06.103	22
10	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:06.079	1:05.475	1:13.151	20
11	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:06.589	1:06.160		20
12	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:06.516	1:06.230		15
13	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:06.442	1:06.319		14
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:06.463	1:06.851		19
15	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:06.330	1:25.847		19
16	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:06.613			10
17	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:06.847			12
18	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:06.901			9
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:07.003			9
20	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:07.083			12