SPIELBERG, Austria — Max Verstappen looks unbeatable again with the Austrian Grand prize.
The Formula 1 leader followed his win in the sprint race on Saturday with another dominant performance in qualifying to take pole position for the fourth year in a row at the Red Bull Ring.
It ended a streak of three consecutive races in which three defences were made formula 1 The champion failed to take pole position, dealing a blow to his nearest rivals who were hoping to challenge him at Red Bull’s home circuit this weekend.
“It’s been a while since we’ve actually been on pole. So it’s a great feeling,” Verstappen said. “It’s a great statement and hopefully we can show that in the race tomorrow.”
After qualifying in the last three races was decided by a small margin, this was certainly not a close issue.
Verstappen’s final lap in the third qualifying session was correct McLaren‘s Lando Norris by 0.404 seconds to take his eighth pole of the season. Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri was initially third, but his time was disallowed for going just outside the track limits, dropping him to seventh and George Russell being taken off the track. Mercedes to third place.
Carlos Sainz Jr. of Ferrari And Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes completed the top five.
Norris went into the weekend hoping to get closer to Verstappen’s pace after consecutive second-place finishes behind the Dutch driver, but may have to lower his expectations after Red Bull showed significantly better pace than McLaren throughout the day.
“Max was in a class of his own, clearly much faster than us,” Norris said. “We need something extra to beat Max and Red Bull’s pace. … Normally we are better in the races than in qualifying, so we will see.”
Russell said he was happy with third after Mercedes used a set-up designed to save their tyres for Sunday’s grand prix rather than going all out in qualifying. But he still didn’t hold out much hope of challenging for victory unless the two drivers ahead of him clashed.
“I’ll sit back and watch (Norris and Verstappen) do their thing and hopefully just try to sneak in, but realistically they’ve got the pace on us,” Russell said. “The race is probably behind us, unfortunately.”
Earlier on Saturday, Verstappen won the sprint race ahead of Piastri and Norris and extended his lead in the general classification to 71 points. The reigning champion is hoping for his eighth race victory of the season and his fifth in seven years at the Austrian GP.