Max Verstappen secured pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix but is under investigation for driving too slowly in the pit lane exit.
The sprint race winner stormed to pole position by over four tenths from Lando Norris, while George Russell secured third for Mercedes.
However, the stewards announced that Verstappen will be investigated for “driving unnecessarily slowly” at the pit exit in Q3.
Q1
Friday’s sprint qualifying session and Saturday’s earlier sprint race had shown Verstappen was the driver to beat in qualifying. Almost as if to reinforce this point, the championship leader was the first driver onto the track at the start of the first phase.
Verstappen posted a 1’06.054 on used softs to set the initial benchmark, but that was easily beaten by several of his rivals including Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Red Bull fitted a second set of slightly used softs onto the world champion’s car and he improved to a 1’05.336 to go temporarily quickest before he was beaten by Carlos Sainz Jnr and Piastri who had both fitted fresh tyres.
Entering the final minutes of the session, the entire field was covered by less than nine tenths of a second. Lewis Hamilton sat in danger in 16th, but he improved to jump up to sixth place. Sergio Perez looked to be at a low risk of falling into the drop zone in the closing minutes, but he managed to improve slightly to escape.
At the chequered flag, Alexander Albon was unable to get through into Q2 and was out in 16th, with Lance Stroll failing to follow team mate Fernando Alonso through, who only just escaped in 15th. Valtteri Bottas was also out in 18th, with Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu knocked out slowest.
The stewards announced that an incident involving Nico Hulkenberg will be investigated after qualifying. The Haas driver pulled into the fast lane of the pits in front of Daniel Ricciardo before his final run.
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Q1 result
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Q2
Despite some drivers, notably Fernando Alonso complaining about the build-up of gravel on the track surface through turns six and seven, there was no delay to clean the track before the second phase of qualifying began.
The two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc ventured out first, the latter posting the better time of the pair to assume the top spot on the timing screen. As the Ferraris returned to the pits,…
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