Max Verstappen was able to score what looked like an easy pole at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, continuing his historic run of dominance through Formula 1.
Verstappen’s pole time was over four tenths of a second faster than Lando Norris, the difference between second and eighth on the grid. He was the first driver to get around the track in under 65 seconds, and one of just five in the whole session.
The infamous amount of track limit infractions that Red Bull Ring generates seemed to have finally been fixed. Only five lap times were deleted in all of qualifying, as the new gravel in certain corners has worked wonders as far as stopping drivers from going over the line.
But track limits were still not completely extinguished, with one particularly brutal one occurring at the end of Q3. Oscar Piastri put down a lap good enough for third, but had his hot lap removed due to track limits in turn 6, one of the turns with gravel on the outside. The Australian qualified in seventh.
“I mean, I didn’t hit the gravel,” Piastri said in the media bullpen to F1 TV. “For me, I thought I was fine. I haven’t seen it yet, we need to have a look at just how painfully close it was.
“A bit painful that we’ve done so much good work in all of the other corners of removing the element of track limits, we still have a corner like that, where you can not be in the gravel and still be outside of track limits. Just disappointing not to have a better result out of that.”
Q3
There were no real incidents in qualifying until the very end. Charles Leclerc ran off line coming out of turn 9 and “broke everything” under the car. Leclerc was able to return to pit road in his Ferrari.
Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Leader |
1. | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 1:04:314m |
2. | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | +0.404s |
3. | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | +0.526s |
4. | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +0.537s |
5. | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +0.589s |
6. | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +0.730s |
7. | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | +0.734s |
8. | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +0.888s |
9. | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | +1.071s |
10. | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | +1.569s |
Q2
It has been a rough weekend for Aston Martin, which was slow in the Sprint to start. It followed that up with a miserable qualifying session in which Fernando Alonso qualified a lowly 15th.
Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
11. | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB Honda RBPT | +0.015s |
12. | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | +0.073s |
13. | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | +0.085s |
14. | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | +0.138s |
15. | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +0.365s |
Q1
This was the closest Q1 in Formula 1 history per Will Buxton on the F1 TV broadcast, as the entire field was covered by just seven tenths of a second.
Pos. | Driver No. | Driver | Team | Time from Advancing |
16. | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | +0.080s |
17. | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +0.163s |
18. | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | KICK Sauber Ferrari | +0.191s |
19. | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams Mercedes | +0.199s |
20. | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | KICK Sauber Ferrari | +0.404s |
F1 Austrian Grand Prix Qualifying Results
Now that qualifying is over, it’s time for the main event. Lights out for the Austrian Grand Prix will come on Sunday, June 30, at 9 a.m. ET. Coverage will be on ESPN.
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.
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