@Max33Verstappen flies to #AustrianGP #SprintShootout pole. #F1

Verstappen Austrian Sprint Pole – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen flew to take pole in the Sprint Shootout for the upcoming 100km F1 Sprint Race later this afternoon at the Austrian GP and ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez in Red Bull front-row lockout as McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the top three.

The day started with rainy conditions at the Red Bull Ring and the Sprint Shootout was declared wet meaning the strict slick compound requirements for the session was suspended and drivers could use any tyre they wanted.

In SQ3, Verstappen held provisional pole scoring purple in all three sectors with a best effort of a 1:04.613 and was 0.397 seconds quicker than McLaren’s Lando Norris who was second and team-mate Perez who was a further 0.467 off the Dutchman in third.

Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg scored an impressive fourth despite running the medium rubber at the end.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz switched to fresher softs for his second SQ3 run and although the Spaniard could only manage fifth, as team-mate Charles Leclerc completed a second flyer on the same set of softs and set a personal best but was only good enough for sixth.

Aston Martin pairing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll followed in seventh and eighth respectively, both switching to mediums for their final SQ3 hot-laps.

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top ten.

In the second segment, which was topped by Verstappen, Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon missed out on SQ3 by a narrow 0.061 seconds and starts the Sprint in 11^th place and in-front of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who took 12^th and the AlphaTauri duo of Yuki Tsunoda who were 13^th and 14^th respectively as Mercedes’ George Russell ended the slowest of the SQ2 runners in 15^th.

Russell encountered hydraulics issues with his F1 W14 racer and was stuck in the Mercedes garage.

In the opening shootout stage, which was topped by Sainz, a flurry of improvements saw Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu miss out on an SQ2 appearance by 0.001 seconds and starts the Sprint Race in 16^th and ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who took 17^th and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who was the shock eliminatee, encountering traffic and having to abandon his final flyer. The seven-time world champion also had his best effort invalidated due to exceeding track limits.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant brought up the rear.

An impeding incident between Leclerc and Piastri is currently being investigated by the stewards.

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Grosser Preis Von Osterreich 2023 Sprint Shootout Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1213/austria/sprint-shootout.html