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Silky Verstappen speeds smoothly to Austrian Sprint pole

The legions of Orange Army fans in Austria cheered with delight as Max Verstappen topped all three rounds of Sprint Qualifying and duly took pole position for Saturday's race ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Mercedes' George Russell had been runner-up in SQ1 and SQ2 but he lost out to the papaya pair in the final round, leaving him starting the race from the second row ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and his own team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc failed to start his sole SQ3 flying lap in time, meaning he will line up in tenth place behind Sergio Perez and Alpine pair Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

2024 Austrian Grand Prix - Sprint qualifying results

A single practice session earlier in the day hadn't been nearly enough time to be certain of the pecking order at Spielberg, with congestion a big issue on the short Red Bull Ring just when drivers had been on their flying laps.

Max Verstappen had overcome a sensor issue to finish FP1 quickest ahead of Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc, but that was far from the full picture. It was only now as qualifying for the Sprint race got underway that we would get to find out how things really stood.

SQ1: Verstappen quickest from Russell, Alonso and Hamilton scramble to go through

No one was in a hurry to be first out on track for the first round of Sprint qualifying, despite the shorter 12-minute time and the risk of congestion and yellow flags interfering with their runs. Finally it was the two Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell who broke the silence.

In dry, warm and sunny conditions, everyone was on mandatory medium tyres for SQ1. Hamilton almost lost it completely early in his flying lap and then went into the gravel, leaving Russell top on 1:05.764s ahead of Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.

Verstappen had been slower to emerge but duly slotted into the top spot by 0.074s from Russell, with his Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez putting himself into sixth place. Hamilton had to regroup from his wayward first run, under pressure to set a time only to have to jostle for track position with Verstappen on his warm-up.

Despite hitting more traffic on the lap itself, Hamilton scrambled to safety in P12, just behind the latest from Fernando Alonso who had also been at rick of missing the cut. Pierre Gasly pipped them both, pushing Daniel Ricciardo into the drop zone along with Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and Zhou Guanyu.

RB's Yuki Tsunoda survived on the bubble despite a harmless spin on his final run. Logan Sargeant out-qualified his Williams team mate Albon for the second sprint race of the season although he's yet to do so for a full Grand Prix since they became team mates at the start of 2023.

SQ2: Verstappen and Russell stay top, Alpines progress as Astons miss out

With only ten minutes on the clock for SQ2, there was no delay for the remaining 15 cars to head back out for the next round of qualifying. The rules meant that everyone was still on the medium, the soft compound reserved for the final top ten shoot-out.

This time the Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Perez led the way. Verstappen was predictably fastest on 1:05.186 almost half a second ahead of the Mexican. Piastri, Sainz, Leclerc and Norris soon filled in the space between the two Bulls.

Russell was looking quick again, going into second ahead of Piastri, while Hamilton made a better start this time and provisionally booked his place in the final round by going sixth fastest ahead of Norris and Perez.

Seven drivers - Gasly, Alonso, Tsunoda, Sargeant, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen - were yet to set a time with two minutes to go, meaning they were on all-or-nothing single lap runs.

Alpine pair Ocon and Gasly put in times good enough for the top ten, but Magnussen, Stroll, Alonso, Tsunoda and Sargeant were all eliminated as Verstappen watched on from the comfort of the Red Bull garage.

SQ3: Verstappen too quick for Norris and Piastri, but Leclerc runs out of time

The drivers finally got to break out the soft tyres for the last eight-minute round. That meant it would be a one-shot effort for everyone, and no one wanted to be first out on track this time. Hamilton and Russell eventually blinked first and came out with just under three minutes remaining.

The cars at the back were really cutting things fine as they dawdled down pit lane, seeking clear track space to work in. Hamilton was first to lay down a time but Russell instantly pipped it by two tenths; and then it was Piastri who briefly took the top spot before Norris seized provisional pole.

He didn't have it for long before a time of 1:04.686s saw Verstappen take P1. Sainz was able to take fifth but his Ferrari team mate Leclerc had indeed failed to make it to the line in time to start his flying lap leaving him P10.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.