Verstappen pips Norris to Sprint Qualifying pole in Austria by 0.093s

Max Verstappen will line up in pole position for the Sprint in Austria, having stormed to the top of the timesheets ahead of the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in a busy Sprint Qualifying session.

With every driver in SQ3 posting just one flying lap in the final minutes, the pressure was on to deliver. And deliver Verstappen did, pumping in a time of 1m 04.686s in the Red Bull to go just 0.093s clear of McLaren’s Norris in second.

Fellow McLaren driver Piastri took third, with the Mercedes of George Russell slotting into fourth ahead of the lead Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in fifth. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton will share the third row with the Spaniard in sixth place.

Sergio Perez put his Red Bull in P7, ahead of the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in P8 and P9 respectively. Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, had a disastrous end to Sprint Qualifying, having failed to set a time after stopping in the pit lane before being unable to cross the line before the chequered flag, leaving him in P10.

FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 2024 – Sprint Qualifying results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	Q1	Q2	Q3	LAPS
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	1:05.690	1:05.186	1:04.686	11
2	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:05.786	1:05.561	1:04.779	13
3	81	Oscar Piastri	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:06.081	1:05.379	1:04.987	14
4	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	1:05.764	1:05.325	1:05.054	9
5	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:05.781	1:05.435	1:05.126	12
6	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:06.504	1:05.539	1:05.270	13
7	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT	1:06.256	1:05.612	1:06.008	14
8	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:06.343	1:05.686	1:06.101	12
9	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	1:06.465	1:05.757	1:06.624	12
10	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:06.149	1:05.526	DNF	12
11	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	1:06.387	1:05.806		8
12	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:06.037	1:05.847		8
13	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES	1:06.487	1:05.878		9
14	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB HONDA RBPT	1:06.557	1:05.960		9
15	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:06.518	DNF		9
16	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB HONDA RBPT	1:06.581			6
17	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	1:06.583			6
18	77	Valtteri Bottas	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	1:06.725			6
19	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:06.754			6
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	KICK SAUBER FERRARI	1:07.197			6

Kevin Magnussen just missed out on SQ3 in the Haas, being less than one tenth off in P11, while Aston Martin saw both of their cars out of the segment, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso qualifying in P12 and P13 respectively.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda took 14th, following on from the team’s tough weekend last time out in Barcelona, while Logan Sargeant will start from 15th for Williams, though a positive for the American was that he managed to out-qualify team mate Alex Albon.

Daniel Ricciardo faced an early exit after failing to progress beyond P16 in the RB, with the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg also seeing his day end in SQ1, the German set to line up in P17.

The Kick Sauber duo of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will start from 18th and 20th respectively, the team’s first point of the year still eluding them, while Albon is sandwiched between them in 19th.