Verstappen Takes Pole for Austrian Grand Prix as Norris Stars with Front Row Grid Slot

Max Verstappen took pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon, with the Dutchman confirmed the kind of pace he had shown all weekend long during the free practice sessions.

The Red Bull Racing driver will be joined on the front row by the impressive Lando Norris, with the McLaren F1 Team racer securing his best Qualifying position of his career.

Q1 – Räikkönen, Ocon Exit

The opening session at the Red Bull Ring saw a thrilling conclusion, with Kimi Räikkönen the first of those to be eliminated, the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver finishing just over three-tenths back on team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi, who comfortably made it through in the second C41-Ferrari.

Also eliminated, and well adrift of his team-mate was Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon in seventeenth, with the Red Bull Ring again proving a difficult circuit to get right for the Frenchman.  Team-mate Fernando Alonso was an encouraging third fastest!

Nicholas Latifi was unable to break into Q2 for Williams Racing, with the Canadian continuing his run of being out-qualified by team-mate George Russell, who was able to make it into Q2 for an eighth consecutive race weekend.

Filling the back row of the grid will be the two Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers, with Mick Schumacher over half a second faster than team-mate Nikita Mazepin.

Verstappen set the best time of the session with a 1:04.249 ahead of Norris and Alonso.

Q2 – Alonso Falls after Vettel Block

Traffic played a part in proceedings at the end of Q2, with Alonso finding a slow Sebastian Vettel on the apex of the final turn as he looked to break into Q3.  The stewards will look at the incident after the session, but it is likely the German will take a penalty.

As a result of the block, Alonso was unable to make it into Q3, with the Spaniard ending only fourteenth, ahead only of Alfa Romeo’s Giovinazzi, who’s pace in Q2 was not as strong as it had been earlier in the day.

Scuderia Ferrari gambled on both drivers getting through to Q3 on the medium tyre, but the plan backfired as Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc ended eleventh and twelfth respectively, while Daniel Ricciardo’s struggles continued as the McLaren driver found himself only thirteenth.

Russell made it through to Q3 for the first time as a Williams driver, with the Briton also advancing on the medium compound tyre.  It meant Williams were represented in Q3 for the first time since the Italian Grand Prix of 2018!

Verstappen again led the way, with the Dutchman the only driver to set underneath sixty-four seconds in the session.

Q3 – Verstappen Takes Pole, Norris on Front Row

Verstappen ensured the took pole position with a best lap of 1:03.720, although it was a close-run thing as Norris put in a superb final effort to get to within 0.048 seconds for his first ever front row grid slot.

It was not the best of laps for Verstappen, with the Dutchman critical of his final lap in Q3, but it was a good day for him and Red Bull as his main championship rival Lewis Hamilton could only finish fourth behind Norris and Sergio Pérez.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team will start fourth and fifth, Hamilton just ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas, while Pierre Gasly will start sixth for a third consecutive race, although he will be looking to do better on race day than he did last weekend after he retired at the end of lap one after contact with Leclerc.

His Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team-mate Yuki Tsunoda will start seventh after a quietly impressive session by the Japanese racer, while Vettel is provisionally eighth for Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team, although he remains under investigation after his Q2 block on Alonso.  The top ten was rounded off by Russell and the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.

Red Bull Ring Qualifying Result

POS	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:04.249	1:03.927	1:03.720
2	4	Lando Norris	ITA	McLaren F1 Team	1:04.345	1:04.415	1:03.768
3	11	Sergio Pérez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1:04.833	1:04.483	1:03.990
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula  One Team	1:04.506	1:04.258	1:04.014
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula  One Team	1:04.563	1:04.376	1:04.049
6	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:04.841	1:04.412	1:04.107
7	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:04.967	1:04.518	1:04.273
8	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:04.846	1:04.493	1:04.570
9	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:04.907	1:04.553	1:04.591
10	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:04.927	1:04.547	1:04.618
11	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:04.596	1:04.559
12	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:04.906	1:04.600
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:04.977	1:04.719
14	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1:04.472	1:04.856
15	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:04.782	1:05.083
16	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:05.009
17	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1:05.051
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:05.195
19	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:05.427
20	9	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:05.951