A brilliant final lap in high stress circumstances allowed Max Verstappen to take pole position for Saturday's sprint race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria with a time of 1:04.984s.
The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were within a tenth of the Red Bull, while Sergio Perez was fourth although there will be an investigation into whether he exceeded track limits on his final Q2 lap.
There were two red flags in the final round, both of them caused by Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton suffered a heavy accident in turn 7, while George Russell had a more ponderous accident at turn 10 after the restart, although he remained fifth in the times.
It had rained overnight and the day had started off with heavy clouds overhead, but by the time the lights at the end of pit lane went green for the start of qualifying the clouds had broken up and blue skies dominated, with the chance of rain officially listed as zero per cent. The air temperature had reached a pleasant 19C and the track temperature reaching 37C in the sunshine. However some drivers had complained of the wind in FP1, which had been topped by Red Bull's Max Verstappen with McLaren's Lando Norris missing half the session with technical problems on the MCL36.
Q1: Ferrari in charge, Ricciardo out as Albon survives the cut
Half the field was out on track on soft tyres within the first two minutes of the session getting underway, and with such a short track time it wasn't long before AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda opened the proceedings with a lap of 1:07.578s. Charles Leclerc then swiftly made his own first run, 1:06.762s improving on Tsunoda by eighth tenths. His Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz had his first time deleted for exceeding track limits by running wide at the exit of turn 10 as he started his flying lap, leaving Sergio Perez second fastest ahead of Norris and Alex Albon.
The two Haas drivers Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen proved there was still plenty of time to extract from the Red Bull Ring, and then Leclerc returned to the top with a time of 1:06.200s. Fernando Alonso soon went one thousandths of a second to put the Alpine briefly ahead but he was immediately shoved aside by Perez, although Verstappen's even quicker lap was another to be deleted for track limits. Alex Albon was within four tenths only for the Williams to be the next to lose his time for a track violation, allowing Lewis Hamilton to go top with a time of 1:06.079s. Verstappen completed a valid lap to go top but almost immediately his time was bettered by Leclerc (on 1:05.419s) and Sainz, an average of two tenths now separating each of the top four.
Meanwhile time was running out for those at the bottom with Daniel Ricciardo on the bubble ahead of Zhou Guanyu, Sebastian Vettel, Nicholas Latifi, Lance Stroll and Alex Albon. Stroll was first to make his bid to scramble out of the bottom five, making it up to P15 and pushing Ricciardo into the drop zone. Zhou, Vettel and Latifi were unable to follow him out with their own final laps, but Albon dug deep to make it to 14th leaving Pierre Gasly surviving on the cusp ahead of the now-eliminated Ricciardo (suffering from rear wing oscillation issues) and Stroll. As the dust settled Vettel's final lap had been deleted, leaving him bottom of the timings.
Q2: Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton keep it close, Perez leaves it late
Once again business was brisk when the session resumed for Q2. Verstappen was soon top with a time of 1:05.568s, two tenths quicker than George Russell and the two Ferraris, but it was Hamilton in the second Mercedes that then went quickest of all albeit by just three hundredths. Norris meanwhile had gone wide at turn 4 on his first flying lap leaving him without a time, with Perez also making a mistake at the same sport and locking up, leaving him just P6.
The Haas cars were still looking sprightly with Schumacher going sixth ahead of Magnussen, pushing Perez down to eighth ahead of Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas. Perez then had his best time deleted, and a fast lap from Alonso meant the Mexican had dropped to P11 putting him at risk of elimination, complaining that he simply couldn't get his tyres to work. Also very much at risk with four minutes remaining were Albon, Gasly, Tsunoda and Norris, whose latest lap was so scrappy and error-strewn that it was only enough to push him up to P13 before - with a sense of inevitability - it was deleted anyway.
By now, Leclerc was back on top with a time of 1:05.287s, almost two tenths quicker than Verstappen and Hamilton with less than two tenths covering the top three. They were followed by Sainz, Russell, the Alpines (Ocon and Alonso) and the two Haas (Schumacher and Magnussen). Bottas had been holding the last all-access provisional pass into Q3 but promptly lost out to Albon's final push. By the time the chequered flag was out, Norris had backed off with concerns about his brakes and was eliminated along with Gasly, Bottas and Tsunoda. Perez had squeaked through with his final run meaning Albon narrowly missed out, despite the Red Bull appearing to go wide at the exit of turn 8. If he had done so it was not one of the many points where race control was automatically enforcing track limits and so for now at least the incident was merely 'noted' with an investigation to be conducted after the end of the session.
Q3: Verstappen pips Leclerc and Sainz to pole after both Mercedes crash out
When the cars got back up to speed, Russell briefly went quickest with a time of 1:05.452s but this was soon bettered by the two Ferraris and then by Verstappen whose run of 1:05.092s was just under a tenth quicker than Leclerc. Perez then went into fourth pushing Russell down to fifth from Ocon and Magnussen as Hamilton was forced to back off on his initial flying lap.
He tried again, and had set the fastest first sector time of anyone but then went over the edge, going slightly wide in turn 7 into the dust and dirt sending the Mercedes oversteering sideways, at which point he was a passenger all the way into the barriers which inflicting heavy damage to the W13. It was the first time Hamilton has crashed out of qualifying in almost five years. The red flag curtailed the laps of anyone out on track, and Leclerc was fuming about Hamilton having blocking him on a previous run - a potential visit to the stewards being just what the seven-time world champion doesn't need at this point of his weekend.
There was still five and a half minutes remaining on the clock when the session resumed once the Mercedes was collected, with the team's hopes for a decent grid position now resting on Russell. Alonso and Russell were quick to set off when the track went green with everyone else playing Russian roulette on pit lane before pulling the pin at the three minute mark. But before they could get to work, there was another red flag - and it was for the second Mercedes after Russell lost the back end of the car going into turn 10 before he even started his push lap, the Mercedes swinging backwards into the barriers. The stewards were then deeply unimpressed when he walked across the track to get back to pit lane, and booked him an appointment to come see them later. The only good news for Russell was that the damage to his car looked less serious than that for Hamilton.
That left eight cars still in contention but only two and a half minutes to put the laps in, very much touch and go. Magnussen was at the front of the queue to leave pit lane, his team mate Schumacher the only driver yet to set a time in this round, and Perez at the back once the lights went green again. Verstappen was flying, and despite a faltering middle sector the final corners saw him extend his margin with a final lap clocking in at 1:04.984s which defied the best efforts of Leclerc and Sainz to catch and overturn. Perez remained fourth, and Russell's earlier time remained good enough to keep hold of fifth ahead of Ocon, Magnussen, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton who by now had been pushed down to tenth by the final flurry of improvements.
The result of qualifying means that Verstappen and Leclerc will be on the front row of the grid for Saturday afternoon's sprint race, the outcome of which will set the starting order for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.
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