Max Verstappen and Lando Norris have locked out the front row of the Formula 1 grid for a second consecutive Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Only this time the roles are reversed – as Verstappen took a dominant pole position at the Red Bull Ring, ending qualifying four tenths of a second faster than McLaren’s Spanish GP polesitter Norris.
George Russell ended up third on the grid after Oscar Piastri had his final Q3 laptime deleted for exceeding track limits.
McLaren attempted to have this decision overturned, but its bid was rejected on various technicalities.
That was one of a number of post-session stewards’ decisions that didn’t end up changing the grid, with no action taken against Verstappen for “driving unnecessarily slowly” to build a gap to cars ahead because he didn’t hold anyone up, Haas escaping with a reprimand for breaches of the race director’s instructions about joining the fast lane in the pits and Mercedes fined €5000 for an unsafe release in which Lewis Hamilton set off from the garage with a jack and exhaust extractor still attached.
That lap deletion being upheld demoted Piastri from third to seventh, behind Carlos Sainz, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, who went off the track on his final flying lap of the session.
Pierre Gasly had qualified 12th for the race, but he had his lap time deleted for a Turn 6 track-limits breach, meaning he will start the race from 13th behind Kevin Magnussen.
Aston Martin had a day to forget with both cars struggling for pace in qualifying. Fernando Alonso starts the grand prix from 15th, while Lance Stroll will try to recover from 17th on the grid, having failed to make it out of Q1.
The bottom five was otherwise completed by the Williams and Sauber drivers. Alex Albon could only do enough to bag 16th on the starting grid, while Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu complete the back row.
Austrian Grand Prix starting order
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Lando Norris (McLaren)
3 George Russell (Mercedes)
4 Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
5 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
6 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
7 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
8 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
9 Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
10 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
11 Daniel Ricciardo (RB)
12 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
13 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
14 Yuki Tsunoda (RB)
15 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
16 Alex Albon (Williams)
17 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
18 Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)
19 Logan Sergeant (Williams)
20 Zhou Guanyu (Sauber)