Max Verstappen returned to the Red Bull Ring and responded to Ferrari’s victory last week at Silverstone Circuit with a pole at his team’s home race.
It’s the third pole in Verstappen’s 2022 season and the 16th pole in the Dutchman’s career.
Verstappen is officially the polesitter for the Grand Prix, but the lineup for the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday (July 10) will be decided by the sprint race at the track the day prior on Saturday.
There were two incidents in the three sessions, both involving Mercedes drivers in Q3. First, Lewis Hamilton went off straight in turn seven, causing a red flag and kicking the seven time champion out of qualifying. Hamilton will start 10th in the sprint.
The second of these came on George Russell’s outlap following the red flag, after taking turn 10 very hard and spinning out into the wall on exit. Russell qualified fifth. It’s unclear quite how much damage both Mercedes took in its unrelated incidents and if it will be 100% in time for P2 on Saturday morning (July 9) prior to the sprint.
The FIA also stated during the session it will be investigating Russell for entering the track without permission after Russell got out of his car and simply walked back to the nearby pit road on the track surface. No penalty has been announced as of press time, but Sebastian Vettel was fined €5,000 for a similar infraction during the Australian GP weekend in April.
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz qualified right behind Verstappen in second and third respectively, with Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez in fourth.
Esteban Ocon will start the sprint in a solid position in sixth, with the two Haas drivers right behind him. Kevin Magnussen will start seventh and Mick Schumacher follows up his first points finish last week with an eighth-place effort in qualifying. Fernando Alonso ended up ninth on the grid.
Race control was extremely strict across all three Formula series, with multiple lap times being deleted in F3 and F2 qualifying due to exceeding track limits. F1 was no different, with plenty of drivers having lap times deleted throughout the sessions, including last week’s winner Sainz and points leader Verstappen in Q1 alone.
Q2
Lando Norris had a pretty miserable day in Austria, first having his lone pre-qualifying practice run short due to engine issues, then qualifying far below where he wanted to be in 15th. The Scuderia AlphaTauri cars didn’t make it into Q3, with Pierre Gasly…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…