Austrian GP: Verstappen secures sprint race pole as Mercedes pair crash
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took a close F1 Austrian GP pole for Saturday’s sprint race from Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Q1:
The first part in F1 Austrian GP qualifying at Red Bull Ring got interesting from the get go as lap deletions hampered multiple drivers including Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, but both managed to get into Q2 by the end.
It was Ferrari on top with Charles Leclerc (1m05.419s) leading Sainz, while Verstappen was third. The fight to get into Q2 was on with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo being knocked out by just the 0.024s margin after his 1m06.613s lap.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (1m06.847s) was 17th from Sebastian Vettel but the German lost his final lap to end up last with a 1m07.083s lap behind Alfa Romeo’a Zhou Guanyu (1m06.901s) and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi (1m07.033s).
Q2:
The second part in F1 Austrian GP qualifying had Mercedes show some pace with Lewis Hamilton setting a 1m05.475s lap to be fast initially by 0.030s from Red Bull’s Verstappen, as the other Mercedes car of George Russell slotted in third.
The Dutchman’s teammate Sergio Perez was in a spot of bother to initially find himself outside of the Top 10 due to track limits. The second run saw Leclerc take the top spot with a 1m05.287s lap to be faster than Verstappen and Hamilton.
The bottom zone saw AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly not make the cut in 11th with a 1m06.160s lap which was only 0.009 from 10th. Williams’ Alexander Albon (1m06.230s) who made it in Q2 was 12th from Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1m06.319s), who will start from back.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m06.851s) was 14th but the Japanese driver was hugely disappointed with himself after making a mistake at Turn 1 on his final lap. McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m25.847s) was 15th after troubles with his brakes as he was back on the old ICE.
Q3:
Just at the start of the final part in F1 Austrian GP qualifying, the FIA noted of an investigation for Perez for track limits at Turn 8 where replays showed him going outside the white line of the circuit which denotes the edge of the track.
It was Red Bull’s Verstappen leading the with a 1m05.092s lap provisionally as Ferrari’s Leclerc was only 0.091s behind with Sainz in third. Before the second run could get going, the session was red-flagged after a rare crash from Mercedes’ Hamilton.
He lost the rear into the left-hander and went onto the gravel and into the barrier at Turn 7 when he was running to set a lap time with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Haas’ Mick Schumacher still to set a lap time as well in the session.
The teams took it slow upon re-start with Alonso first to improve to seventh and actually set a lap time. But before anyone else could do anything, there was another red flag after Russell crashed at Turn 10 after losing control and going into the barrier.
Russell was then put under investigation for entering the track without permission as he made his way into the pitlane from the crash site. With about two and a half minutes remaining, Leclerc went fastest but Verstappen bettered to 1m04.984s lap.
The Dutchman took F1 Austrian GP pole by 0.029s to start the Saturday’s sprint race on pole from Leclerc (1m05.013s), with Sainz (1m05.066s) only 0.082s behind from Verstappen. It was a good finish for Perez (1m05.404s) to be in fourth but he is under investigation.
Russell (1m05.431s) retained fifth despite the crash as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m05.726s) was sixth from the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen (1m05.879s) and Mick Schumacher (1m06.011s) who pipped Alonso (1m06.103s), with Hamilton (1m13.151s) 10th.
