F1: Verstappen beats Ferraris to take pole in Austria

–by Mark Cipolloni–

For the fourth race in a row, Max Verstappen is on pole, this time for the Austrian GP, with a lap of 1m04.391s in his Red Bull Honda.

The Dutchman just beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari by 0.048s in a typical close session at the Red Bull Ring.

It was a lot closer than we have seen in recent races. Yet still, he will be happy with that, setting up him to get a fifth win a row come Sunday afternoon.

“It was very difficult because of all the track limits,” said Verstappen.

“With these speeds it’s so hard to judge the track limits. I think we still did a good enough lap. Very happy being on pole.

“We know that this is a different weekend with the whole format, but very happy with today. At least the car is quick and that’s the most important.”

Verstappen led the way in all three segments and after the first runs in Q3.

On the second and final Q3 tries, Verstappen went quickest in the first and third sectors, which improved his time to 1m04.391s.

Behind, Leclerc set the fastest time in the middle sector to go second quick.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was third in the 2nd Ferrari, 0.190s behind in a session where exceeding track limits caught many drivers out.

“It feels good to have a clean qualifying again,” said Leclerc.

“Very close to Max, not enough today. Overall I don’t think we expected to be this close to the Red Bull so it’s good. It was already feeling quite okay in practice.

“Everybody is so close. Very tricky, but happy. Race pace looked quite good in Montreal, but again consistency is where we need to focus, but Red Bull for now is quicker.”

“It was good. I think we had a strong quali as a team,” said Sainz.

“Closer to Max than expected, so overall we are quite happy. I think we still have a lot of weekend ahead of us. We put ourselves in a good position to try and get a podium on Sunday.

“Obviously we are in parc ferme, so it’s not like we can improve the car a lot. But we will see if we can pick up a tenth or two.”

Lando Norris was 4th best in the heavily revised McLaren, 0.267s behind while Lewis Hamilton was 5th in the #44 Mercedes.

A truly outstanding performance from the McLaren driver, but speaking just now he was not completely happy. He believes if not for a mistake in the final corner, he could have been third.

Both George Russell and Sergio Perez were knocked out in Q2. Perez has failed to get into Q3 for the fourth race in a row in that Red Bull, proving it’s not the Red Bull that’s fast, it’s Max Verstappen that makes the difference.

Based on their performances in recent races, many predicted Mercedes and Aston Martin would be the closest challengers to Red Bull come this weekend. But that has not proven the case today, with Hamilton in fifth, ahead of Russell down in 11th. They have often said they have a better race car than a qualifying car, so it will be interesting to see what Mercedes can do come Sunday afternoon.

As for Aston Martin, it is the second time that Stroll has out-qualified his team mate Alonso. The Canadian will start the race down in sixth, with Alonso just behind him in seventh.

As this is a sprint weekend format, these sessions set the grid for Sunday’s race and have no impact on Saturday’s sprint event.

Qualifying Results