SPIELBERG, Austria – Max Verstappen looks unbeatable again at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Formula 1 leader followed his win in the speed race on Saturday with another dominant qualifying performance to take pole position for the fourth consecutive year at the Red Bull Ring.
It ended a run of three consecutive races in which the three-time F1 champion failed to take pole position and dealt a blow to his closest rivals who were hoping to challenge him on Red Bull’s home circuit this weekend.
“We have been in pole position for some time now. So it’s a great feeling,” said Verstappen. “This is a big statement and we hope we can also show this tomorrow in the race.”
After qualifying in the last three races was decided by narrow margins, this one wasn’t even close.
Verstappen’s final lap of the third qualifying session beat McLaren’s Lando Norris by 0.404 seconds to take his eighth pole of the season. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was initially third, but had his time docked for exceeding track limits, pushing him down to seventh place and pushing Mercedes’ George Russell into third.
Carlos Sainz Jr. of Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes completed the top five.
Norris entered the weekend hoping to get even closer to Verstappen’s pace after consecutive runners-up finishes behind the Dutch driver, but may have to lower his expectations after Red Bull showed much better speed than McLaren throughout the day.
“Max was in a class of his own, clearly much faster than us,” said Norris. “We will need something extra to beat Max and Red Bull’s pace. … We’re usually better in racing than in qualifying, so we’ll see.”
Russell said he was pleased with third place after Mercedes used a setup that should help save tires for Sunday’s Grand Prix rather than going all out in qualifying. But he still didn’t have much hope of fighting for victory unless the two riders ahead of him got involved.
“I’ll sit back and watch (Norris and Verstappen) do their thing and try to hopefully just get in, but realistically they’ve got the pace on us,” Russell said. unfortunately.”
Verstappen won the sprint race earlier on Saturday, ahead of Piastri and Norris, extending his lead in the general classification to 71 points. The defending champion is looking for his eighth victory of the season and fifth in seven years at the Austrian GP.
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