Verstappen defeated McLaren’s Lando norris to second place, the Briton running a remarkable lap to win the best qualifying position in his career.
Sergio Perez from Red Bull was third. Lewis Hamilton was fourth. This disappointment came shortly after announced a new contract for him to continue racing in Formula One for at most two more years. Valtteri Bottas was his teammate.
George Russell ran a fantastic lap on the Red Bullring to place his car in ninth for Williams. This was the first time that he had made it into Q3 with them. The Briton, who hopes to become Hamilton’s teammate next year, did it on the medium, harder tyres. He will have more strategic options for Sunday by starting the race on the harder compound.
Verstappen won the first two sessions, and looked extremely confident going into Q3. He maintained his edge in the heat and on Pirelli’s softest tires compounds. He was fast in the first and third sector and finished the session in 1 min 3.720sec. This is more than two-tenths faster than Norris who did a great lap and Hamilton.
While Verstappen was faster than Norris on their second run, he couldn’t improve his lap. Verstappen’s final time of 1:02.768 was five hundredths slower than the Dutchman. Perez also improved with Hamilton having a slightly scruffy last lap.
Verstappen, 23, is fighting for his title in his first fight since his debut in F1 in 2015. He is handling it well. Verstappen has a strong advantage of 18 points over Hamilton. His resurgent team is enjoying their best season since 2013. They also have a 40 point advantage over Mercedes in constructors’ champion.
Verstappen has now won his seventh career pole and is on track for his fourth this season. Hamilton hasn’t been on pole since the Spanish GP. This was his last win and the last time Mercedes had a faster car than Red Bull.
He won the Styrian GP with a dominating victory. Verstappen was untouchable from pole. There are all indications that he can replicate the performance on Sunday. Verstappen was 15 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who made a late stop in order to claim the bonus point for fastest lap.
Sebastian Vettel finished eighth for Aston Martin, but is likely to be given a three-place grid penalty after he impeding Fernando Alonso during Qu2. Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri and Yuki Tusunoda from AlphaTauri were sixth and seventh respectively, while Lance Stroll of Aston Martin was in the 10th spot.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were 11th and 12th respectively for Ferrari. Daniel Ricciardo was 13th for McLaren. Alpine’s Alonso was 14th, and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi was 15th.
Kimi Raikkonen, who was 16th for Alfa Romeo, was ahead of the Alpine Ocon of Esteban Ocon (Williams of Nicholas Latifi) Haas’ Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Nikita Mazepin ranked 19th and 20th respectively.
