Max Verstappen bagged pole for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix, his 40th Formula 1 career pole, as none of his rivals managed to threaten his quest.
Verstappen's performance in qualifying in Spielberg was reminiscent of what we have seen from him and Red Bull back in 2023 as he was never challenged throughout the three-stage shootout at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday afternoon.
After four races were Verstappen was beaten to pole by the slightest of margins, the reigning F1 Champion finally returned to the zone he is used to and took pole from Lando Norris by four tenths of a seconds.
Mercedes continued their strong run with George Russell fourth fastest, a position previously occupied by Oscar Piastri's McLaren but was lost after the Australian driver was deemed to have exceeded the track limits on his final lap.
Russell once again outqualified his seven-time F1 Champion teammate Lewis Hamilton who was only sixth behind Carlos Sainz in fifth.
Hamilton will be under investigation after the session for unsafe release after he exited the garage with some equipment apparently connected to his W15.
Charles Leclerc's qualifying was messed up for the second day in a row, and after the anti-stall issue he suffered in Sprint Qualifying that meant he qualified tenth, the Monegasque fluffed his final Q3 lap and was only sixth fastest.
With Piastri dropped to seventh after exceeding track limits, the big shock belonged to Sergio Perez who was over eighth tenths of the pace of his teammate!! How could that be?
Nico Hulkenberg dragged his Haas once again into Q3 and while Alpine have been improving, only Esteban Ocon made it into the top ten this time.
It was another shocking qualifying for Aston Martin who continue their drop as their best-placed driver Fernando Alonso could not manage more than 15th.
Verstappen: We tried to adjust the car, it worked well
After winning the Sprint Race, Verstappen revealed that Red Bull tweaked his RB20 a bit and made it even better, he said: "The qualifying went really well.
"We tried to adjust the car a little bit after the things that we learnt this morning, I think it worked well. Of course, the track is a bit warmer than yesterday so it made it trickier to drive, but the car felt a lot better for me today. I could really attack the corners a bit more, every run was on point and it was very enjoyable out there.
"It has been a while that we have actually been on pole [for a Grand Prix] so it's great. It's a great feeling. The team has been working really hard to make the car more competitive and I think this is a great statement.
"Hopefully we can of course also show that tomorrow in the race. It's always nice to race. Hopefully it's a tight battle again but we'll see," he responded when asked about the prospect of racing Norris again.
Norris admitted he could not deliver any better, he said: "I think it was as much as we could do today. Max was in a league of his own. Clearly much quicker than what we had, so I’m happy.
"Tricky conditions, felt a bit more difficult than it was yesterday, a lot closer. More difficult to get the laps in and perfect them. It was good enough and I’ll take it.
"It’s tough," the Briton added when asked about his grand prix chances. "When you look at the pace today, it’s clear that we’re going to give it a lot. We’re going to need something extra to beat the pace of Max and the Red Bulls.
"I’ll try. I’ll do a better job than I did this morning, that’s for sure. I’m excited. I’ll look forward to it. It’s a long race, many things can happen, and normally we’re better in the races than we are in qualifying, so let’s see," he concluded.
After inheriting third place from Piastri, Russell said: "The car is feeling great at the moment. The team has worked so hard bringing these upgrades and it feels we have got a real fight on our hands, especially with Ferrari.
"We are still a little bit behind McLaren - and Max and Red Bull were flying today - but it's definitely going in the right direction for us.
"We definitely changed a few things [on the car after the Sprint]. We changed the wing level, which helped a little bit and will help the tyre deg for tomorrow, so happy to be in P3 because I think we compromised qualifying a little bit for the race.
"But the fact is McLaren still have that edge on us. But, as I said, three races in a row for us that we're in the top three with Lewis and I. That feels really great," the Briton insisted.
Russell admitted he will try to benefit from Verstappen and Norris fighting for the lead in Sunday's race, he added: "These two were pretty dicey in the Sprint race so I think I'll sit back, watch them do their thing, and hopefully sneak through on the inside.
"But, realistically, they have got the pace on us. Our race is probably going to be behind us unfortunately and it's important we don't compromise our race too much battling with these guys," the Mercedes driver concluded.
This how qualifying for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix unfolded:
Q1: Alonso makes it to Q2 by the skin of his teeth.
Clear conditions carried on from the Austrian F1 Sprint Race to qualifying, with track temperatures rising even higher to 47 degrees Celsius as air temperature was 31 degrees.
Teams would have been able to tweak the setup of their cars as the regulations this season allow them to break parc ferme after the Sprint to do some further fine tuning. Will they make their cars better or worse?
No one wasted time with Q1 given the green light, as the cars lined up in the pitlane, Verstappen leading the pack and the first to head out. All cars on Soft tyres, as there are no mandates on tyre compounds as is the case with Sprint Qualifying.
Verstappen posted the first time going to the top, and Perez went second fastest, but soon Sainz goes to the top of the pile, a tenth faster.
Leclerc takes over the top position after his first lap, with Norris going second fastest as Piastri was third fastest, while Tsunoda goes fourth fastest as the track continues to evolve.
With less than 12 minutes remaining, both Mercedes drivers joined the action and started their first runs of qualifying.
Hamilton goes seventh fastest, while Russell goes to the top from the first attempt.
With all the top teams doing their first runs the order was: Russell - Leclerc - Norris - Piastri - Yuki Tsunoda - Sainz - Hamilton - Verstappen - Kevin Magnussen - Perez - Daniel Ricciardo - Hulkenberg - Alex Albon - Ocon - Zhou Guanyu.
With less than nine minutes remaining, the second runs start, and Verstappen goes fastest on used Soft tyres, but soon drops to second as Sainz goes faster by 0.073s. Leclerc improves to third.
Piastri goes second fastest on his second timed lap, while Norris goes fourth, while Hamilton has a moment going into Turn 3 as it seems he locked up, while Tsunoda loses his time for exceeding track limits at Turn 6.
Norris returns to the pits but his team aske him to head out again to do another lap immediately, so he keep going to the exit as things get busy, all drivers emerging from their garages for their final runs, with less than four minutes on the clock.
Sainz, Piastri, and Verstappen (The top three ahead of the final runs) opt not to run again. Hamilton on the other end is not happy and reports to his engineer that he is "just slow".
In the end, Sainz leads into Q2 with his 1:05.63, with Piastri second fastest, 0.048s slower with Verstappen third fastest and 0.073s off the pace.
Alonso made it into Q2 by the skin of his teeth, and dropped Albon who was 16th fastest missing out to the Spaniard by 0.080s.
Lance Stroll was 17th fastest in the other Aston Martin, 0.083s behind Albon and 0.028s ahead of Valtteri Bottas, 18th fastest in the Sauber.
Logan Sargeant was 19th ahead of Zhou in 20th as eighth tenths covered the whole grid from 1 to 20, reportedly the closest Q1 in the history of the sport.
Q2: Both VCARBS and Alonso out
Action resumed for the remaining 15 cars and Ocon and Pierre Gasly were the first drivers to start a timed lap, and were followed by the Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc. Sainz reported "a lot of bouncing" on his first timed lap.
With less than 11 minutes remaining, the rest of the field started their runs, as the order started to receive a reshuffle.
Verstappen goes almost one second clear from Leclerc's earlier order topping time, but then Hamilton closes the gap to the Dutchman to 0.491s and goes second fastest.
Russell soon goes second fastest and Piastri goes third fastest, while Norris only managed fourth as Perez goes fifth meaning Hamilton dropped to sixth.
Replay showed Alonso having a moment on track and reports to his team that he nearly crashed at Turns 7 and 10.
With seven minutes remaining, the top ten were: Verstappen - Russell - Piastri - Norris - Perez - Hamilton - Ocon - Ricciardo - Tsunoda.
Sainz and Leclerc in the out-of-sync Ferraris kicked off the second round of laps, the former improving to second while Leclerc only goes sixth fastest.
With less the four minutes remaining from Q2, the final runs to identify the top ten drivers who will contest Q3.
In the end, Verstappen remained on top, with a 1:04.469, 0.547s faster than Sainz in second place as Russell was third fastest having set an identical time to Sainz.
Ricciardo was the first of the eliminated bottom five drivers and missed out to Ocon by 0.015s and will start the grand prix on Sunday from 11th on the grid.
In 12th place was Magnussen, 0.058s behind the Australian and 0.012s ahead of Gasly who was only good for 13th.
Tsunoda was out as well in Q2, meaning VCARB could not return to their Q3 participation. The Japanese driver was 14th fastest ahead of Alonso who was 15th, as all his skills could not drag the woeful Aston Martin AMR24 further than that.
Q3: The fight for second best!
The cars started exiting the pits with ten minutes remaining from Q3, while Mercedes waited a bit longer and were the last two cars to join the action.
Hulkenberg sets the first time on the board and goes fastest, as Verstappen - right behind him on track - starts his own first lap in Q3.
Verstappen goes to the top with a 1:04.426 and over three tenths faster than Norris as Russell goes third fastest ahead of Leclerc in fourth with Piastri fifth fastest.
Hamilton was sixth fastest ahead of Sainz in seventh and Perez in eighth with Ocon down in ninth ahead of Hulkenberg in tenth.
With less than three minutes and Verstappen on provisional pole, the final hot laps around Spielberg started with Mercedes once again the last team to hit the track.
Verstappen find over a tenth and improves his time to take pole with a lap time of 1:04.314, as Norris was 0.404s away from the # 1 Red Bull in second.
Russell was third fastest in the Mercedes, over half a second off the pace, and inherited the position from Piastri who initially went third fastest before his lap time was deleted for exceeding the track limits at Turn 6.
Sainz was fourth fastest, 0.011s behind Russell and 0.052s ahead of Hamilton who was fifth fastest in the second Mercedes.
Leclerc had a moment on his final lap and went wide into the gravel in the final two corners and was only good for sixth fastest.
Piastri, after losing his second hot lap time was down in seventh, over seven tenths slower than Verstappen's benchmark time and 0.154s ahead of Perez in eighth.
Perez was over eight tenths slower than his pole-sitting teammate!
Hulkenberg was ninth after another superb showing in the Haas as Ocon was tenth.
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