For the second consecutive week in Austria, Verstappen proved he commands front row attention.
SPIELBERG, Austria—With support from his orange-colored fans, Verstappen recorded a 1:03:720 fastest time for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix. He finished ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris with Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, in third.
Verstappen dominated the whole day of qualifying, following a difficult day on Friday, when he only got as high as third. But Lewis Hamilton could not improve on the previous day’s success and ended up a disappointing fourth, while Mercedes’ teammate, Valtteri Bottas, was no better than fifth.
Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda finished their Alpha Tauri’s in sixth and seventh, respectively. George Russell, advancing to the last session for the first time in his Williams, took ninth ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Max Verstappen: To be twice on the pole is good. Hopefully, we can finish it off tomorrow. Softer compounds compared to last week, so it will be tough to manage those in the race. But, aside from that, we’ll try to focus on our own race.
Norris was upbeat. “Feels pretty cool,” he remarked. “It’s a good feeling and lovely to share this moment with you. The fans are cool here.” Perez was more circumspect. “It’s been a hard weekend up to now. It was arduous work – harder than you think.”
As for the other teams and drivers. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was the big disappointment of the day, placing his Alpine no better than 17th on the grid. He joined Kimi Raikkonen of Alfa Romeo, Williams’ Nicolas Latifi, and the two Haas drivers, Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, in being knocked out of the opening session.
Perhaps more stunning was what happened to both Ferrari’s of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc, McLaren’s Daniel Riccardo, and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi. They were all eliminated, as well as Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who had a chance to qualify for the final session until he was blocked by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel at the final corner.
Vettel’s block ruin the Spaniard’s opportunity of advancing. Vettel went to the final session and eventually finished eighth, but his obstruction of Alonso could give him a penalty for race day.
There is a threat of rain for Sunday’s race, which you can watch live on ESPN at 9a Eastern Time.
