#AustrianGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen pips @CharlesLeclerc to pole for Sprint. #F1

Austrian Sprint Pole – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen clinched pole position in qualifying for tomorrow’s 100km F1 Sprint at the Austrian GP pipping Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.029 seconds as both Mercedes crashed.

The Dutchman and local favourite appeared to have been eclipsed by a last-second Ferrari trounce, which peaked after two red flags which were caused by crashes from Mercedes pairing Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

With reigning champion Verstappen losing time through sector one during the initial part of his last flyer, Leclerc might have taken pole when he moved over the line to take first place.

But Verstappen pulled the rabbit out of the hat, by gaining time through sector three to score what looked to have been an unlikely pole, being the only driver to get into the 1:04’s bracket.

The battle for pole came down to two minutes and 31 seconds following the Mercedes shunts.

Verstappen’s Q3 effort had him provisionally quickest as he left the pits behind the Ferrari duo.

Leclerc was first over the line to begin his last hot-lap for pole, only lose a tenth to Verstappen in sector one.

But the Monegasque driver recovered with a fastest sector three, whilst Verstappen was off the pace.

Leclerc therefore jumped to the top of the pile on a 1:05.013.

Sainz was a little off his Ferrari team-mate’s effort with a 1:05.066, with three personal best sectors, which looked to have secured pole for Leclerc.

But then Verstappen posted the quickest final sector, which was enough to recover the damage earlier in the tour and the Red Bull driver set a 1:04.984 and take pole by a narrow 0.029 seconds.

Sainz has the other Red Bull RB18 entry of Sergio Perez for company on the second row for the Sprint as the Mexican qualified in fourth as Russell’s pre-shunt was suffice for the Briton to remain in fifth for Mercedes as Alpine’s Esteban Ocon placed sixth.

The Haas F1 Team pairing of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher followed in seventh and eighth respectively with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso ninth.

The aforementioned Hamilton, was relegated down to tenth after his incident, which happened inside the opening half of the last ten-minute part of qualifying.

In the first of the Mercedes crashes, Hamilton brought out the red flags in the final segment with five minutes and 29 remaining on the clock after shunting into the barrier at turn seven.

The seven-time world champion, who over-steered out of turn six, was wide out of the apex, which caused the rear of his Mercedes F1 W13 racer to snap out of control.

Hamilton was rapid to correct it, but as the W13 gripped, the steering-lock applied sending the Briton off the road and into the gravel.

He went sideways into the wall to break the front and rear-right corners of the car.

The crash was meant by cheers from the Dutch fans, with Hamilton being a definite threat for pole after leading the time-sheets for much of the second qualifying stage as he brought his benchmark down to a 1:05.475 before being demoted by Leclerc and Verstappen.

After the 11-minute delay, Russell followed Alonso out to have clean air as he aimed to better his fifth-placed effort.

Despite the unhampered run, the Briton ran slower than his personal best in sector one, 0.42 seconds off of Verstappen’s benchmark before a green sector two.

Then not unlike his team-mate, Russell lost the rear of his W13 racer through the last corner and it too snapped wildly to flick the Silver Arrow towards the outside tyre wall, eventually destroying his rear wing.

Russell is currently under investigation by the stewards for entering the track without permission at turn ten as the Briton walked across the circuit under a red flag to return to the pits.

Perez also could create controversy, as the Mexican had one shot to progress into Q3 after various track limit infringements had his lap-times invalidated.

The Red Bull driver then progressed into the final segment on his last flying lap, finishing Q2 in sixth on the classification, only then to be noted by the stewards for running over the white lines at the left-right rapid turn seven-eight open chicane after the session ended and positions 11-15 were locked in.

In Q2, which was topped by Leclerc, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly missed out on a Q3 appearance by a very narrow 0.011 seconds and starts the F1 Sprint in 11th place, lining up alongside Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who took 12th and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas qualified 13th.

The other AlphaTauri AT03 entry of Yuki Tsunoda takes 14th on the grid and in-front of McLaren’s Lando Norris who was the slowest of the middle segment runners in 15th.

Norris was the major casualty of the second segment, having been eighth at the end of Q1, despite running off the track at turn three, to put team-mate Ricciardo out.

But the Briton who caused the first of two red flags in FP1 after reporting smoke from his MCL36 racer from under his seat, with the Briton “scared to hit the brakes”.

Norris started the 15-minute session by over-steering at turn three before suffering a massive series of under-steer at turn four, clipping the gravel and having his effort invalidated.

His next attempt, the McLaren driver ran deep into the opening corner and abandoned the tour.

This left Norris last and with no time set as he then made errors in three of the seven defined corners, albeit the FIA recognised 10 turns.

The Briton locked up at turns three and four again before again touching the gravel of the turn six exit.

Norris had one attempt left, but pitted to thus remain 15th.

In the first qualifying stage, in a session also topped by Ferrari’s Leclerc, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was the quickest of the eliminatees in 16th and will start the Sprint in-front of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who was 17th and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who took 18th.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and the other Aston Martin AMR22 entry of Sebastian Vettel brought up the rear with the latter having his 17th-best lap-time invalidated for exceeding track limits.

2022 Austrian GP Pole for F1 Sprint – Max Verstappen, #33, Oracle Red Bull Racing-RBPT, RB18, 1:04.984:

“Yeah it was a very long between the two runs and that’s never great with the track temperatures dropping the wind changing, not that many corners here but the corners you have here its very easy to make a mistake… I think we have a great car, normally qualifying is not our strongest point… but I feel confident with the car we have.”

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2022 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1115/austria/qualifying.html

#AustrianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest, ahead of @CharlesLeclerc. #F1

#Formula1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2022 Preview. #F1 #AustrianGP