After a thrilling qualifying session, Max Verstappen has emerged victorious once again as he secured pole position in the Austrian Grand Prix, which is scheduled to be held on 2nd July at the Red Bull Ring. This will be the home Grand Prix for both Red Bull and Toto Wolff.
Significant highlights of the qualifying session include Sergio Perez’s time being eliminated which led to him starting 15th on the grid, and Ferrari pilots Charles and Sainz qualifying second and third, respectively, getting the better of both Mercedes and Aston Martin’s drivers.
Max Verstappen grabs the pole position in the qualifying session
Max aced all the qualifying sessions, but Q3 saw a fantastic time of 1m 04.391s, enough to snatch pole position from the – Charles impressively finished within half a tenth as he dragged his car around the track. Carlos finished third after a deleted time due to track limits.
“It was very difficult because of all the track limits. With these speeds, judging the track limits is hard. I think we still did a good enough lap. Very happy being on the pole. We know this is a different weekend with the whole format, but we are very happy today. At least the car is quick, and that’s the most important.” reported Verstappen when asked about what was the most important for him today.
Due to Perez’s retirement from the second phase due to consecutive deleted lap times, the improved Ferraris were left alone to compete against Max Verstappen, with Leclerc just missing out by 0.048s after an explosive final lap.
Lando Norris put on an outstanding effort in his upgraded McLaren to gain a seat on the second row, depriving the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso. Sainz finished third, another tenth and a half behind.
Verstappen claimed 6th pole position of the season
Max has made this his 6th pole position of the season while he has 26 poles under his name. Verstappen is definitely the favourite at his team’s home circuit, even if he had not won the last four races, but he did. He has previously won four times in Austria: three Austrian GPs and one Styrian GP. Due to Perez’s poor qualifying, it will be harder for Red Bull to finish a one-two at home.
Max has secured pole positions in the following races so far in the season;
- Austria Spielberg
- Canada Montréal
- Spain Barcelone
- Monaco Monaco
- Australia Melbourne
- Bahrain
Now that the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix is set. Thus, Austria will play home to the second F1 Sprint of the year on Saturday. The Sprint Shootout and 100-kilometer Sprint race will start at 1200 and 1630 local time, respectively.
