Max Verstappen Takes F1 Austria Pole

Max Verstappen continued his hot streak in Formula 1 by scoring his fourth straight pole position in the series on Friday, June 30, at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

VERSTAPPEN TAKES POLE IN AUSTRIA!!#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/xG78VpZIoZ

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 30, 2023

Verstappen, the current points leader, has led every single lap in F1 competition since midway through the Miami Grand Prix in early May, and will look to continue that from the pole on Sunday.

On lap 20 of the Miami Grand Prix, Verstappen took the lead and has not given it up since- he has now led 223 consecutive laps over the last four races.#F1 | #CanadianGP

— Frontstretch Open Wheel (@FSOpenWheel) June 18, 2023

Verstappen will be flanked by two Ferrari drivers in the first two grid rows. Charles Leclerc was short by just five-hundreths of a second of the pole and will start second, with Carlos Sainz right behind in third.

CHARLES: "Very close to Max, not enough today. Overall I don't think we expected to be this close to the Red Bull, so it's good"#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/v8BGm2egir

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 30, 2023

Lando Norris was the best of the rest in fourth, while Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was the fourth team in the top five by virtue of qualifying in fifth.

There were a number of track limit infringements in all rounds of qualifying. Due to how the track flows and how the drivers sit in modern F1 cars, it’s very hard for drivers to just where exactly on the limit they are.

Q3

There were no incidents in this round.

6. Lance Stroll

7. Fernando Alonso

8. Nico Hulkenburg

9. Pierre Gasly

10. Alex Albon

Q2

There were no incidents in this round of qualifying, outside of the aforementioned lap time deletions. Sergio Perez lost both of his hot laps due to this and the Red Bull will start in 15th.

11. George Russell

12. Esteban Ocon

13. Oscar Piastri

14. Valtteri Bottas

15. Sergio Perez

Q1

Bottas went spinning off and stalled out next to the DRS sign outside of turn 1, causing a red flag with 11 minutes and 49 seconds remaining in the session. The Finnish driver was able to continue on in the session after the red flag and even made it into Q2.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Valtteri Bottas goes wide after Turn 1, but gets going again#AustrianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/SF2xAiwQi4

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 30, 2023

16. Yuki Tsunoda

17. Zhou Guanyu

18. Logan Sargeant

19. Kevin Magnussen

20. Nyck de Vries

F1 Austria Qualifying Results

This weekend marks the second of six F1 Sprint Weekends in 2023. Coverage of the F1 Sprint will come on Saturday, July 1 at 10:30 a.m. ET on ESPN. Lights out for the Austrian Grand Prix will come on Sunday, July 2 at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN.