Once again, however, it was a day to forget for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas as the two finished in fourth and fifth.
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Another day, another masterful driving performance by Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver claimed yet another pole position in the Austrian Grand Prix (GP) qualifying. However, he did not have it easy. His pole position was under a very real threat from someone nobody expected. McLaren driver Lando Norris shocked the Formula 1 (F1) world as he grabbed second place in qualifying. Verstappen led the way throughout the qualifying session. He topped the opening two segments to head into Q3 as the favorite for the pole position. He had set a pretty competitive benchmark but he was only 0.2 seconds faster than Norris.
The Red Bull driver could not improve his time on his second run. It set up a rather tense finale as Norris had picked up the pace was going quicker than him. In the end, he missed out on his first ever pole position by just 0.048 seconds, giving Verstappen his third consecutive start from the first place on the grid, and increased his tally to four for the year.
It will be the first time that Norris will start from the second position in his career. He managed to give McLaren their first front row start since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, when a certain Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button took first and second respectively for the team.
Red Bull will be quite happy with the results of the Austrian GP qualifying as their second driver, Sergio Perez grabbed third place. He will start from the second row on the grid in the main race on Sunday.
Once again, however, it was a day to forget for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton and Valterri Bottas as the two finished in fourth and fifth respectively. Hamilton will start from the second row on the grid on Sunday while his teammate will start from the third. A betting person would put their money on Verstappen claiming yet another pole position. Neither Mercedes drivers could outpace the Red Bulls or Norris, a rather distressing sign ahead of the main race.
The result was defending champion Hamilton’s worst performance in Q3 at the Red Bull Ring since 2014. It is also the first time Mercedes missed out on a top-three spot with either car in dry conditions since the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix.
Pierre Gasly continued his good run of form in qualifying as he finished in sixth position. His AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda tied his best-ever qualifying performance as he finished in seventh place. Sebastian Vettel lead Aston Martin to an eighth-place finish, however he could be in for a grid penalty after baulking Fernando Alonso earlier in qualifying.
It was a brilliant outing for George Russell as he not only made it into Q3 for the first time in a Williams but he did so on the medium tyre, putting him in a strong position strategically for the main race.
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