Max Verstappen continued his domination of the weekend as he beat Lando Norris by four-tenths of a second to take pole for the Austrian Grand Prix. The Dutchman set a 04.314 to take pole by a bigger-than-expected margin given how close qualifying has been in recent races.
Verstappen was always expected to be the driver to beat in qualifying, but Norris has been close all weekend and challenged him in the early part of the sprint at lunchtime. Verstappen taking his first pole since Imola as he topped every session so far this weekend thought he was a tenth off what he managed to top Q2.
The final nail in the coffin by going even quicker on his last qualifying run to end up with the biggest pole margin of the year ahead of Norris, who also improved with his second lap.
George Russell was promoted to third after Oscar Piastri had his fastest time deleted for track limits at Turn Six. That moved Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc all up one place. Sainz was a hundredth behind Russell’s Mercedes and went half a tenth faster than Hamilton while the seven-time champion was over a hundredth faster than his future Ferrari teammate. Piastri’s deleted time dropped him down to seventh, four thousandths behind Leclerc.
But the three-time champion has been placed under investigation for possibly driving too slowly through the pitlane exit at the Red Bull Ring ahead of his final Q3 effort. After being put under much pressure from Norris and McLaren in sprint qualifying and Saturday’s first race of the weekend, Verstappen was in command throughout the session that sets the grid for the Grand Prix.
Verstappen said, “The qualifying went really well. We tried to adjust the car a little bit after the things that we learnt this morning, I think it worked well. The track was a bit warmer than yesterday, so it made it trickier to drive, but the car felt a lot better for me today. I could really attack the corners a bit more, every run was on point and it was very enjoyable out there.”
Hamilton meanwhile just scrapped out of Q1 as the Mercedes driver has struggled to find pace this weekend, complaining “I’m just slow.” He was also off the pace compared to the other front-runners in Q2 but salvaged fifth place behind Sainz and Mercedes team-mate Russell.
Hamilton has been summoned for an alleged unsafe release when he knocked his rear jack over as he left the garage in Q3.
He finished six-tenths off pole, and told reporters, “We made some progress with the balance of the car. I should have probably started the weekend with this balance but nonetheless, it was ok, the lap was pretty decent at the end. The middle sector was a little bit down but overall it’s alright.”
The Red Bull Ring provides one of the shortest laps of the season and, in percentage terms, Verstappen’s gap to Norris was his largest over the second-placed driver all season, underlining the quality of his and Red Bull’s performance.
Leclerc also didn’t have the perfect Q3, the Monacan having to abort what could have been his fastest lap. He went wide through both Turn Six and the final corner and nearly crashed after going into the gravel trap. Those mistakes cost him time and while it didn’t bring out a yellow flag may have seen drivers be slightly cautious
GP qualifying wasn’t any better for Sergio Perez he again struggled to match Verstappen, he could only manage eighth a tenth and a half behind the McLaren and nearly nine tenths off the Dutchman’s fastest time. The Mexican was nine-tenths down on pole-sitter Verstappen, so is likely to not be able to help his Red Bull team-mate in the race.
Nico Hulkenberg was ninth as he put his Haas half a second faster than the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. But Hulkenberg has been placed under investigation for two separate incidents of breaking the rules in the pit lane.
Daniel Ricciardo missed out on Q3 by a hundredth and a half as he put his RB eleventh six hundredths ahead of the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Ricciardo had only just scraped through to the second part of qualifying.
Pierre Gasly was thirteen the Alpine driver a hundredth behind Magnussen and ahead of his former teammate Yuki Tsunoda by half a ten. Fernando Alonso was frustrated by his performance in qualifying, he was only fifteenth slowest in Q2 unable to improve his Q1 position, as the two-time champion was over half a second behind the RB.
Alex Albon was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Williams driver was eight hundredths behind Alonso at the end of the first part. But Albon splits the two Aston Martins after he was eight hundredths faster than Lance Stroll, the Canadian was given a new contract earlier in the week.
Valtteri Bottas was eighteenth as he put his Sauber a hundredth faster than Logan Sargeant, the Williams driver splitting the two Saubers after going just over two tenths faster than Guanyu Zhou.
Related
- Austrian GP – Sprint Result
- AUSTRIAN GP – Max Verstappen dominates a thrilling sprint battle beating Lando Norris by four and a half seconds
- Austrian GP – Sprint Qualifying result 2024
- AUSTRIAN GP – Max Verstappen beats Lando Norris to sprint pole by just under a tenth
- AUSTRIAN GP – Max Verstappen fastest by three tenths in practice from Oscar Piastri
- Welcome to the Austrian Grand Prix – 27062024
- PRIXVIEW – Austrian Grand Prix
