Max secures another pole with Lewis Hamilton right beside him. Their respective teammates will start fourth (Perez, Red Bull) and fifth (Bottas, Mercedes).
SPIELBERG, Austria—Lewis Hamilton might have taken the third practice session on Saturday morning, but Max Verstappen took the prize of the day, claiming his second pole in a row with a 1:03:841 fastest time in preparation for Sunday’s Styrian (Steiermark)Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
Max Verstappen: It has been a very good weekend. The car was very good to drive in qualifying, although it was not easy to deal with the traffic.
Both Verstappen and Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, dominated the opening two sessions, and Mercedes’s Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas could not keep pace, which Hamilton duly noted. “They (Red Bull) have been so fast this weekend,” he remarked. “I did everything I could. I don’t think we will have the pace to overtake them, but hopefully, we can keep up.”
Hamilton will start second, but he won’t be joined among the top qualifiers by teammate Valtteri Bottas, who would have qualified in second, if not for an accidental slide in the pit lane in Friday practice. That mishap received a three-place penalty, and the Finn will start the race in fifth.
For others in the top ten, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly took sixth with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in seventh. The second Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda took eighth, while Alpine’s second car of Fernando Alonso finished ninth. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll completed the top finishers in tenth.
Others were not as fortunate. Haas drivers, Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, exited the opening session, along with a host of others, including Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. And while George Russell had his best qualifying session of the season (11th), he was knocked out in the second session, along with Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, and perhaps the biggest surprises of the day–Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Will Verstappen keep his streak going tomorrow? Or will luck once again find Hamilton? It will be an important day as drivers and teams chase 2021 season championships.
