Austrian GP Qualifying: Verstappen takes his 40th pole after winning Austrian sprint
Red Bull's triple world champion Max Verstappen secured pole position for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, with McLaren's Lando Norris joining him on the front row.
The pole was the Dutch 26-year-old's 40th of his career, and his fifth at the team's home track, the Red Bull Ring, where he has won more times than any other current driver and has a sizable fan base.
Verstappen was in a different league than his competitors, with Norris 0.404 slower at the circuit with the shortest lap time on the calendar.
George Russell was third fastest for Mercedes after McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who finished second in the sprint with Norris third, was penalised for exceeding track limits and dropped to seventh on the grid.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz will start fourth at Spielberg's Red Bull Ring, with Mercedes' seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in fifth and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc sixth after running wide on his final attempt.
"We tried to adjust the car a little bit after the things that we learnt this morning, I think it worked well," said Verstappen, who had been chased hard by the McLaren drivers in the sprint.
Verstappen took provisional pole with a lap time of 1 minute, 04.426 seconds, and then went even faster with a final flying effort of 1:04.314.
He was already more than half a second faster than anyone else in the second round of qualifying.
"It has been a while that we have actually been on pole (for a grand prix), so it's great," said Verstappen, not counting top slot in the sprint.
"It's a great feeling. The team has been working really hard to make the car more competitive and I think this is a great statement."
Verstappen's eighth pole in 11 races came after three consecutive races in which rivals qualified faster: Leclerc in Monaco, Russell in Canada, and Norris in Spain.
He began the season with seven in a row.
Norris, the champion's closest title rival but 71 points behind and feeling under the weather all weekend, had no answer.
"I think it was as much as we could do today. Max was in a league of his own. Clearly much quicker than what we had, so I’m happy," the Briton said.
Piastri had briefly taken second place, but Norris pushed the Australian down to third, and the stewards added another four places after ruling he had gone completely off track at Turn 6.
The McLaren driver was unhappy with a knife-edge decision he deemed embarrassing.
"I didn't go off the track, I stayed on the track," he said.
"I was right to the limit of the track, I think that's what everyone wants to see ... there's no reason this corner should be an issue for track limits, especially when you stay on the track like I did. Or not in the gravel."
Sergio Perez of Red Bull qualified eighth, 0.888 slower than his teammate, with Nico Hulkenberg of Haas in ninth and Esteban Ocon of Renault-owned Alpine rounding out the top ten.
Hamilton and Mercedes were summoned to the stewards for a potentially unsafe release after he emerged from the garage and knocked over a jack in the pitlane.
After speaking with the team representative and reviewing video evidence, the stewards decided not to change Hamilton's grid position.
"Car 44 was released from the garage in an unsafe manner dragging a jack and an exhaust extractor behind it," the statement said. "The stewards acknowledge that the team immediately informed the driver to stop to prevent any further damage and/or dangerous situation."
Hulkenberg was also being investigated for two separate pit lane breaches.
RB's Daniel Ricciardo will start 11th, well ahead of teammate Yuki Tsunoda in 14th, while Alpine's Pierre Gasly's lap time was deleted in the second phase, dropping him to 13th place. Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin qualified in 15th place.
SportsLigue