@Max33Verstappen beats @CharlesLeclerc to #AustrianGP pole by narrow 0.048 seconds. #F1

Verstappen Austrian GP Pole – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen clinched pole position in qualifying for Sunday’s Austrian GP and ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by a narrow 0.048 seconds with Carlos Sainz completing the top three.

With cloudy skies and stronger winds compared to Friday’s earlier practice session at the Red Bull Ring, the drivers saw themselves being hit with multiple track limit infringements, particularly in Q2.

In Q3, Verstappen held provisional pole with a 1:04.503 and was 0.206 seconds quicker than Ferrari’s Leclerc and Sainz was a further 0.424 seconds off the Dutchman in third.

On the final flying laps, Verstappen lead the pack around and scored purple in sectors one and three, which was the fastest with a 1:04.391.

Behind the Dutchman, Leclerc improved to edge his Ferrari team-mate Sainz, posting the quickest effort in sector two as he pushed Verstappen hard in the battle for pole.

Leclerc gave it his all in the final corners on his last flyer, getting very close to track limits through the double right-hand turns and as he did so, the left rear of his SF-23 racer stepped out a touch and as he ran to the line, the Monegasque driver found himself beaten by a very narrow 0.048 seconds.

Behind Sainz, Lando Norris qualified an impressive fourth in the updated McLaren MCL60 as Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton was fifth.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll followed in sixth and headed team-mate Fernando Alonso in qualifying for the second time this campaign despite having to recover from losing his initial hot-lap effort due to exceeding track limits at the final corner.

Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg placed eighth and ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon, who lost his best effort in Q3 – and had an off-set flyer compared to the other nine drivers – but it would not have been enough for the Thai-Briton driver to get higher on the grid.

In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Verstappen, track limits was the story of the session.

Mercedes’ George Russell was knockout in 11^th and ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who was 12^th and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who placed 13^th.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez followed in 14^th and 15^th respectively as the latter was knocked out in Q2 for the fourth successive Grand Prix and lost his lap-time due to exceeding track limits at the final corner.

Perez also lost two other efforts for exceeding track limits beforehand, one for running wide out of the penultimate corner and the other again out of the last turn.

In the opening segment, which was topped by Verstappen, the session was interrupted with one-third of proceedings completed when Bottas lost the rear of his C43 racer following the slow-moving RB19 of Perez through turn one.

When Bottas’s left-rear corner touched the big yellow sausage kerb on the exit of the sharp uphill right-hand turn, the C43 speared right and spun off backwards, coming to a halt with it’s front-right wheel remaining on the circuit and the rest on the grass on the inside.

As Bottas at first tried to find neutral in his Alfa Romeo and then was able to get going, the session was red-flagged for six minutes, during which the Finn was able to swing around and return back to the pits.

AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees in 16^th and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who took 17^th.

Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant ended qualifying in 18^th and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries who brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2023 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1213/austria/qualifying-0.html

2023 Austrian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2023 Austrian GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing – RBPT-Honda, RB19, 1:04.391:

“It was very difficult because of all the track limits. With these speeds it’s so hard to judge the track limits. I think we still did a good enough lap. Very happy being on pole. We know that this is a different weekend with the whole format, but very happy with today. At least the car is quick and that’s the most important.”

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, +0.048:

“It feels good to have a clean qualifying again. Very close to Max, not enough today. Overall I don’t think we expected to be this close to the Red Bull so it’s good. It was already feeling quite okay in practice. Everybody is so close. Very tricky, but happy. Race pace looked quite good in Montreal, but again consistency is where we need to focus, but Red Bull for now is quicker.”

3^rd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, +0.190:

“It was good. I think we had a strong quali as a team. Closer to Max than expected, so overall we are quite happy. I think we still have a lot of weekend ahead of us. We put ourselves in a good position to try and get a podium on Sunday. Obviously, we are in parc ferme, so it’s not like we can improve the car a lot. But we will see if we can pick up a tenth or two.”

#AustrianGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen pips @Carlossainz55 to top session. #F1

#F1 @Rolex #AustrianGP 2023 Preview. #AustrianGrandPrix #F1SprintWeekend