Max Verstappen opened his Red Bull team’s home race account with clinical execution to take pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix. At Formula One’s second sprint race meeting of the year the serious business remains ahead but on this form, on a track that plays to the strengths of his car and in front of swathes of Dutch fans, every expectation is that Verstappen has far more to come at the Red Bull Ring, even as Charles Leclerc finally brought a fight to the home team.
The Dutchman was imperious in beating Ferrari’s Leclerc and Carlos Sainz into second and third place in qualifying, after the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez failed to make Q3. Yet Ferrari will take heart in pushing the Dutchman hard, the Scuderia’s upgrades in Austria delivering a long hoped-for fillip.
Wanting to impose on the pack, Verstappen went out early in the final runs and duly set the pace with his first quick run in a time of 1min 04.503sec. Fastest in every sector and staying within the track limits that had been catching out drivers throughout the session, he was two-tenths up on Leclerc, who had put in a far from shabby lap.
Verstappen’s second run was even better, the final sector immense for a time of 1:04.391, but he needed it to be as Leclerc threw it all at him. His last quick run left nothing behind, it was as good as the Ferrari has looked all year and it showed as he finished only four-hundredths back from the world champion.
“It feels good to be back on the front row,” said Leclerc. “Overall I don’t think we expected to be so close to the Red Bulls, so it’s a good step forward.”
For Leclerc there was a clear sense of momentum for the team as he thanked them for their efforts. He took his last win here last year and while that is likely still beyond them, what Ferrari are really looking for from these upgrades is a step forward in race pace performance and balance. Should they achieve it there will be cautious optimism at the Scuderia that they are finally making steps forward in closing the gap to Red Bull.
The session was defined by a slew of laps being deleted as drivers exceeded track limits, particularly at turn 10, a full 47 offending laps in total committed by 19 of the 20 drivers on the grid. It cost Verstappen’s teammate Pérez a place in Q3 when both his times were deleted. It is the fourth race in a row he has failed to reach the final shootout, leaving his team principal, Christian Horner, describing his performance as “hugely frustrating”.
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There was clear frustration, too, from the drivers, who were dissatisfied at the track limits issue here, which arises every year and is not addressed. Verstappen, who had a time deleted himself, was scathing.
“Today was very silly, we almost looked like we were amateurs the amount of lap times being deleted,” he said. “Some of them were so marginal. We spoke about it in the briefing, when its very marginal it’s impossible to judge whether it is out or in and they were still getting deleted.
“I don’t think it’s a good look today. People say you should stay within in the white lines but if it is that easy you can take my car and try and you probably won’t even get up to speed.”
Lando Norris did superbly to claim fourth for McLaren on a track he likes and Lewis Hamilton was fifth for Mercedes. However what was really noticeable and ominous for Sunday’s race was how within himself Verstappen appeared and with the further confidence of knowing his car has even more to come in race pace. He has five wins already this year and leads the world championship by 69 points from Pérez. Another victory is surely on the cards come Sunday.
The pole ensures Verstappen will start at the front of the grid on Sunday as F1 embraces its new sprint race format for the second time this season. With race qualifying concluded, a separate second qualifying on Saturday will decide the grid for the sprint, itself a standalone race. The sprint will be over 100km, with points from eight to one for the top eight.
Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were in sixth and seventh for Aston Martin, Nico Hülkenberg in eighth for Haas, Pierre Gasly in ninth for Alpine and Alex Albon in 10th for Williams.
Pérez went out in 15th, while George Russell also had a lap deleted and went out in 11th for Mercedes. Esteban Ocon was in 12th for Alpine, Oscar Piastri in 13th for McLaren and Valtteri Bottas in 14th for Alfa Romeo.
The AlphaTauris of Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries were in 16th and 20th, Guanyu Zhou in 17th for Alfa Romeo, Logan Sargeant in 18th for Williams and Kevin Magnussen in 19th for Haas.
