SPIELBERG, Austria — Max Verstappen earned his third consecutive Austrian Grand Prix pole with a dramatic qualifying performance Friday afternoon at the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen overcame deleted lap times from the first two sessions, with plenty of drivers, including Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, falling foul of track limits – to make it into the top 10 shootout and deliver his pole-grabbing effort of 1 minute and 4.391 seconds.
Perez was absent from the Q3 battle after dropping out in the second phase with successive deleted times, leaving the updated Ferraris to take the fight to Verstappen.
Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc was a mere .048 seconds slower than Verstappen, who has won four consecutive grands prix, taking second on the grid.
“It’s great to be on pole here at the Red Bull Ring, it feels good,” Verstappen said. “It wasn’t a straightforward qualifying because of all the track limits. It’s very hard to judge the white line here, a lot of us got caught out so at least it wasn’t just us. Today was all about surviving, we just needed to bank the laps as we weren’t able to push hard. It’s such a short lap here so we are all pretty close together. We’ve got a long weekend ahead so a lot can happen, tomorrow will be a completely different story. Today, the car was quick and we were ahead, that’s the most important thing.”
Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz qualified third, while Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren and Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top five for Mercedes.
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) continued his run of Q3 appearances with another strong drive to eighth position.
A sprint race will be held on Saturday with the Austrian Grand Prix taking the green flag on Sunday.