Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole position for Saturday’s Formula 1 sprint at the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix in the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen will start ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri after the qualifying session, which is split into three quickfire segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.
These sessions set the grid for Saturday’s sprint and have no impact on Sunday’s main event.
Verstappen set the quickest time at 1m05.690s on the mandated medium tyres, 0.074s faster than George Russell of Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) lost his opening lap time when he had big moments at Turn 1 and Turn 6, the latter resulting in him exceeding track limits. He had to run again and made it through despite another scrappy lap.
Yuki Tsunoda (RB) suffered a huge spin at Turn 9 but just kept it out of the barrier and made it through.
Falling at the first hurdle were Daniel Ricciardo (RB), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Valtteri Bottas (Sauber), Alex Albon (Williams) and Zhou Guanyu (Sauber).
Verstappen set the fastest time at 1m05.186s, 0.139s clear of Russell.
Knocked out at this point were Kevin Magnussen (Haas), the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant (Williams).
Teams elected for just one run on the soft tyres, making it a frantic dash in the battle for pole as they all left the pits with under 3m remaining.
Hamilton set the benchmark at 1m05.270s after running wide at Turn 3, which Russell, Piastri, Norris and Verstappen all beat, the latter taking pole with 1m04.686s.
Norris, who was 0.093s off pole, will start second from team-mate Piastri, Russell, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Hamilton, Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc didn’t make the line in time after his car faltered at the end of the pitlane on his out lap. He will start 10th.
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