Max Verstappen took pole for the Formula 1 Sprint Race in Austrian, and while he never seemed under threat, McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri challenged hard.
Earlier in the day, Verstappen seemed to have the advantage but not by much as the likes of McLaren and Mercedes didn't show their hand. Ferrari showed improvement compared to Barcelona one week ago, but the pecking order seemed close.
However as Sprint qualifying started, Verstappen was on the pace from the get go, and while in all three stages, the lap times were close, he clearly showed that he was on his way to grab pole.
McLaren, once again were the closet challengers to Red Bull, Norris and Piastri completing the top three behind Verstappen, while Mercedes once again beat Ferrari, George Russell fourth and beating Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in fifth while Lewis Hamilton was sixth after a mistake on his final lap.
Charles Leclerc did not manage to put another lap in SQ3 after having a power unit issue due to anti-stall on his way to the track and did not have enough time to start a final hot lap. He was tenth.
Leclerc commented on his issue, and said: "I don't know what happened. I was in the pit lane and I got the anti-still then everything switched off. The team told me we will speak later, so I don't know.
"We were not super strong but we would have been better than P10. A bit disappointing but we will try to have a good Sprint to come back," he added.
Alpine seemed to be carrying the momentum from Barcelona, both cars in the top ten, Esteban Ocon in eighth ahead of Pierre Gasly in ninth.
Verstappen: Car was well balanced
Polesitter Verstappen said: "It's great to be first here in front of, basically, my home fans and my home Grand Prix. It's been a good day so far.
"It's really been nice to drive the car. It was well balanced and then you make some little adjustments going into sprint qualifying and everything has been working really well.
"It's a good start to the weekend, there are still a lot of things to do, but I'm happy with today," the triple F1 Champion concluded.
Here is how the Sprint qualifying unfolded...
SQ1: Logan Sargeant outqualifies Alex Albon!
Sunnier conditions prevailed over Spielberg at the start of Sprint Qualifying with track temperature rising from FP1 and recording 43 degrees Celsius while air temperature was 28 degrees.
As is the case with SQ1, the drivers will set out on track with Medium tyres and go on putting in lap after lap till the time runs out, which makes it tricky for the drivers as the track evolves and lap times fall, and having a short track like the Red Bull Ring makes traffic even more of a factor.
SQ1 was given the green light, but the drivers remained in their garages, as the clock ticked on the 12-minutes stage, and after two and a half minutes the action began.
Hamilton was the first driver to set a lap time, a 1:06.416, but was soon deleted for exceeding the track limits for running wide at Turn 6 after running wide.
Soon Verstappen went to the top of the pile and remained there till the end of SQ1 with a lap time of 1:05.690, 0.074s ahead of Russell in second and 0.091s ahead of Sainz in third. Norris was fourth.
Hamilton barely made it into Q2 after having his first lap deleted and was an eventual 13th.
Yuki Tsunoda brought out a brief Yellow flag after running wide and spinning at the final corner, but did not damage his car.
The first driver to drop out was Daniel Ricciardo, who lost out to teammate Tsunoda by 0.024s and will start the Sprint from 16th on the grid.
Nico Hulkenberg was 17th fastest in the Haas, 0.002s behind Ricciardo and 0.142s ahead of Valtteri Bottas, 18th in the Sauber.
Albon was 19th in the Williams, as Sargeant made it into SQ2, while Zhou Guanyu was down in 20th.
SQ2: Aston Martin woes continue
No one wasted time when SQ2 was given the go, all drivers heading out immediately to take part in the ten-minute stage, with Medium tyres still mandatory.
Verstappen was the first driver to start a flying lap and went to the top of the pile as other drivers followed, but the with less than five minutes remaining, the Dutchman's time remained unchallenged.
Drivers returned to the pits for some quick setup tweaks and with three and half minutes remaining, the action resumed for the final runs.
At the end of SQ2, Verstappen remained on top, his time of 1:05.186 the best of the lot and 0.139s ahead of Russell in second as Piastri was third 0.193s off the pace.
The second batch of eliminated drivers were led by Kevin Magnussen who was 11th fastest and beaten into SQ3 by Gasly by 0.049s.
Lance Stroll was 12th fastest in the Aston Martin 0.661s off the ultimate pace and 0.032s ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso, 13th fastest in the sister car. Stroll had a huge slide on his final lap in the last corner, but held it.
Tsunoda was 14th ahead of Sargeant in 15th.
SQ3: Norris falls short of beating Verstappen
The eight minute final stage of Sprint Qualifying was started but with three minutes elapsed, none of the drivers made his way to the track.
Finally, the actual pace of the cars would be revealed as in SQ3, the Soft tyres will be used according the the rules of Sprint qualifying.
With less than three minutes, the remaining ten drivers head out on track for the final time on Friday afternoon in Spielberg.
While still in the pitlane, Leclerc seemed to have a problem and parked on the side, but soon got going again, but was very low on time almost one minute remaining.
Hamilton puts in the first lap, and went fastest but then got beaten by Russell, and Piastri soon went fastest, only for Norris to take top spot.
But in the end Verstappen puts in the best lap and takes pole for the Austrian Sprint Race, beating Norris by less than a tenth.
Verstappen took pole with a lap time of 1:04.686 which was 0.093s faster than Norris in second while Piastri was three tenths off the pace in third.
Russell was 0.067s behind Piastri in fourth ahead of Sainz who was fifth and 0.072s slower than the Briton.
Hamilton was sixth in the sister Mercedes, 0.216s slower than his teammate and over seven tenths faster than Sergio Perez, the Mexican only good for seventh.
Ocon confirmed his strong form from FP1 and was eighth fastest, albeit being 1.415s off pole and 0.523s faster than his teammate Gasly in ninth.
Leclerc who suffered from anti-stall in the pitlane did not manage to reach the start/finish line to start a lap and will line up tenth on the grid of Saturday's Sprint Race in Austria.
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