F1 Austrian GP: Verstappen pips Norris to sprint race pole

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beat McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to top sprint race qualifying at Formula 1’s 2024 Austrian Grand Prix – the Dutchman satisfied his car was “really nice to drive” in the contracted sprint format.

After the SQ3 drivers had waited for almost all the final qualifying segment to pass by before heading out on new soft tyres, the Mercedes pairs led the pack out of the pits.

Lewis Hamilton posted a 1m05.270s before he was immediately beaten by his team-mate George Russell and then Piastri came through to shuffle them down.

Norris produced the fastest time in the middle sector to nip ahead on a 1m04.779s, but Verstappen’s leading pace in the first and final thirds made the difference as he came through to top the session with a 1m04.686s – just 0.093s ahead of the McLaren driver.

“Great to be first here in front of basically my home fans, my home grand prix,” Verstappen said afterwards.

“It was a good day. It's really been nice to drive the car. I think immediately the car was well balanced. And then you make some little adjustments going into the sprint quali and everything has been working really well.

“So, yeah, good start to the weekend. Still, of course, a lot of things to do, but I'm happy with today.”

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38 (Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images)

Behind, Carlos Sainz slotted his Ferrari between the Mercedes drivers to take fifth, with Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly ending up seventh, eighth and ninth and appearing to pay the price for being at the back of the traffic queue on the SQ3 out-lap.

Charles Leclerc ended up 10th without setting an SQ3 lap in the other Ferrari after he had pulled over from between the Alpines in the pitlane with an apparent technical issue.

He rectified this and headed out, but did not cross the line in time to start a flying lap.

In SQ2, Kevin Magnussen produced the best first sector of this segment but lost time as his sole run continued and he wound up 11th – ahead of Aston Martin pair Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, plus Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant.

Stroll saved a massive moment at the final corner on his only attempt in SQ2, with those eliminated, plus the Alpine pair, having to complete an extra run on the mediums compared to the frontrunners getting out of SQ1.

In that, Hamilton had a nervy ride through after losing his first lap for going wide and dipping his right-side wheels in the gravel at Turn 6, then had a traffic-heavy second attempt before he progressed in 13th behind Alonso.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24 (Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

Logan Sargeant led Alex Albon from the off for the Williams and the former’s last-gasp improvement knocked Daniel Ricciardo out in 16th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Albon and Zhou Guanyu.

In the closing seconds of the opening session where the drivers are obliged to run the medium tyres throughout, as those that made it also were in SQ2, Tsunoda spun off dramatically at the final two corners but was able to carry on without damage.

F1 Austria Sprint Race Qualifying result

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Time	km/h
1	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	1'04.686	240.311
2	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	+0.093 1'04.779	239.966
3	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	+0.301 1'04.987	239.198
4	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.368 1'05.054	238.952
5	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.440 1'05.126	238.688
6	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.584 1'05.270	238.161
7	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		Red Bull	Red Bull	+1.322 1'06.008	235.498
8	E. Ocon Alpine	31		Alpine	Renault	+1.415 1'06.101	235.167
9	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	+1.938 1'06.624	233.321
10	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari
11	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		Haas	Ferrari	+1.120 1'05.806	236.221
12	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	+1.161 1'05.847	236.074
13	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	+1.192 1'05.878	235.963
14	Y. Tsunoda RB	22		RB	Red Bull	+1.274 1'05.960	235.670
15	L. Sargeant Williams	2		Williams	Mercedes
16	D. Ricciardo RB	3		RB	Red Bull	+1.895 1'06.581	233.472
17	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		Haas	Ferrari	+1.897 1'06.583	233.464
18	V. Bottas Sauber	77		Sauber	Ferrari	+2.039 1'06.725	232.968
19	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	+2.068 1'06.754	232.866
20	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24		Sauber	Ferrari	+2.511 1'07.197	231.331
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