Verstappen’s clean sweep in Austria continued on Saturday, as he took both the sprint race and qualified on the pole.
SPIELBERG, Austria—Max Verstappen has had a solid weekend at his sponsor’s home circuit by taking practice one on Friday, along with the Saturday sprint race. And to top it off, the Dutchman ran a 1:04:314 qualifying time later that afternoon for Sunday’s race to complete his domination. McLaren’s Lando Norris took second, with the Mercedes of George Russell in third.
Max Verstappen: It’s been a while since we’ve been on the pole, so it’s a great feeling. The team has been working hard to make the car a bit more competitive, and I think this is a remarkable statement, and it will be a great fight. It is always nice to race (Norris), and it will be a tight battle, but I’m not overthinking about that. I am just happy with how the car was performing today, and hopefully, it will translate tomorrow at the race pace.
For Norris, it was the best he could do despite the dominance of Verstappen at this circuit. “Tricky conditions,” he said, “a little bit more difficult than yesterday — a lot closer, more difficult to get the laps in and perfect the laps. But I’ll take it.”
Verstappen had no trouble all afternoon, with only Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari taking the opening session. But Verstappen recovered, and with the second session won, the Dutchman and Red Bull driver continued to dominate, having no problems in the final ten minutes of qualifying. Both McLarens of Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri would have taken second and third, but the latter suffered a penalty in his last run for exceeding track limits and dropped down to seventh on the grid.
Sainz finished fourth overall, with Mercedes Lewis Hamilton struggling with front grip, doing no better than fifth. Charles Leclerc overshot the last fast corner and commented that he broke his Ferrari, which will have to be repaired overnight, and ended up in sixth. Eighth went to another disappointing performance by Sergio Perez in his Red Bull, and ninth went to Nico Hulkenberg and his Haas. The final position in the top ten went to Esteban Ocon and his Alpine team.
The biggest surprise of the afternoon went to both Aston Martin’s, who continued to disappoint in their form as Lance Stroll exited the opening session, with Fernando Alonso doing the same in the following round.
ESPN will televise the race starting at 9:00 AM Sunday.
