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Verstappen on pole for Austrian sprint race / Photo: © AFP
Verstappen on pole for Austrian sprint race
Three-time world champion Max Verstappen delighted hordes of his vociferous supporters on Friday when he secured pole for Saturday's sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver clocked a best lap in one minute and 4.686 seconds to outpace nearest rival Lando Norris of McLaren by 0.093 seconds in hot conditions at the Red Bull Ring circuit, owned by Verstappen's team.
Oscar Piastri was third in the second McLaren ahead of George Russell of Mercedes, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, a disappointing sisth for Mercedes.
Sergio Perez was seventh for Red Bull ahead of Esteban Ocon and his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly.
"It’s good to be first here in front of all my home fans and in our home Grand Prix," said the 26-year-old Dutchman.
"It’s been a good day so far and it’s nice to drive the car. It feels well balanced and we only needed a few adjustments so all is going well.
"I’m not concerned about things and feel relaxed. Let’s see what happens tomorrow."
In a frantic, final few minutes, luckless Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had a problem in the pit lane and was unable to cross the start line for his flying lap in time for it to count, leaving him down in 10th place.
"I don’t know what happened and the anti-stall switched off," said Leclerc. "I haven’t spoken to the team yet so I just don’t know."
On a hot afternoon in the Styrian Alps, with temperatures touching 28 degrees Celsius and rain threatening, Hamilton was first out on track ahead of Yuki Tsunoda and Valtteri Bottas, the Briton surviving a lurid slide at Turn One and an 'off' at Turn Six on his opening lap.
His time was disqualified for exceeding track limits before he resumed on his medium tyres after falling to 19th without a lap while Verstappen soared to the top ahead of Russell, the Dutchman clocking 1:05.690 to stay ahead of Russell by 0.074 seconds.
On his second run, Hamilton was 12th, barely comfortable, and he slipped to 13th as others improved, but enough to avoid joining both Saubers, Alex Albon of Williams, Nico Hulkenberg of Haas and Daniel Ricciardo of RB in taking an early exit.
The SQ2 session saw Verstappen stay on top ahead of Russell and Hamilton taking sixth behind Piastri, Sainz, and Leclerc with Norris and Perez seventh and eighth.
Out this time went Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas ahead of Lance Stroll and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin together with Yuki Tsunoda of RB and Logan Sargeant of Williams.
The top ten shootout began with Hamilton leading Russell down the pit-lane while late drama saw Leclerc halt before recovering in a race to join the fray within the time limit.
Leclerc failed to make it while on their flying laps, the Mercedes were outpaced by both McLarens with Verstappen claiming his eighth career sprint pole and second in succession in front of the adoring 'orange army'.
L. de Freitas--JDB
