Max Verstappen in a league of his own, but penalty looms

Max Verstappen’s run of success at the Formula 1 weekend in Austria continues. After securing pole position for the short race on Saturday afternoon, the sprint winner also secured first place on the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Verstappen left no room for doubt with a lap time of 1:04.314 and distanced Lando Norris by 0.404 seconds. For Verstappen, it is already the fifth Spielberg pole in a row. At least it would be, because he is being investigated after qualifying.

The result: He had already staked his claim to the eighth pole position of the 2024 Formula 1 season with a dominant best time in Q2. The time of 1:04.5 would have been sufficient pace for pole. In Q3 he upped the ante and improved his lap by another tenth on each run.

Formula 1 in Austria: Verstappen on pole, Leclerc & Piastri stumble over track limits

Behind Verstappen, the two McLarens fought a duel for second place on the grid, which was ultimately won by Norris. Piastri then lost his time and fell back to seventh place. George Russell took third place, followed by Carlos Sainz in fourth place and Lewis Hamilton in fifth position.

Charles Leclerc dramatically ruined his last run by going off the track twice and crashing violently through the gravel trap at turn 9. Sergio Perez also suffered a setback and ended up in P8, almost nine tenths of a second behind Verstappen. Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Ocon round out the top 10 on the starting grid for the Formula 1 race in Austria.

Is the pole setter facing a penalty? Investigation against Verstappen and Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton caused a strange situation in Q3 when he briefly took the Mercedes jack with him and knocked it over as he left the garage for the first run. He is in trouble for this. The stewards immediately announced an investigation into the unsafe exit from the pit.

A further investigation was announced shortly after the end of Formula 1 qualifying. This one, however, was against the provisional pole setter. Verstappen is said to have driven unnecessarily slowly at the exit of the pit lane. However, the result of the investigation is still pending. Until then, Verstappen’s pole position is in danger.

Q1 in Austria: Fernando Alonso narrowly advances, Sauber fails

The starting task in Spielberg qualifying for many drivers was to save tyres and complete their first run on used softs. This included practically all of the top drivers, as they had already used the red tyres in yesterday’s sprint qualifying in Q3.

This also meant that Max Verstappen did not appear as dominant as he did in Friday’s qualifying. The Red Bull driver did not use fresh tires at all in the first segment, while most of the top drivers switched to fresh tires for their second run. He still ended up in third place. Carlos Sainz set the best time ahead of Oscar Piastri.

In the lower half of the rankings, Lewis Hamilton soon had to worry. Both Mercedes cars were late on the track, but unlike George Russell, Hamilton was unable to easily move up the leaderboard and instead found himself at the bottom of the list before the final run. But with his second outing, he was able to easily qualify for Q2.

However, the end of the line came after Q1 for a number of usual suspects: These included the Sauber duo of Valtteri Bottas in P18 and Zhou Guanyu in P20, as well as Logan Sargeant, who at least managed to leave the red lantern behind on his final run and finished in P19. For his teammate Alex Albon (P16) and Lance Stroll, qualifying also ended after Q1. Fernando Alonso was a little luckier and only just managed to qualify for Q2 in P15. In an extremely tight field, he was less than four tenths of a second behind the leader.

Q2 in Austria: Ricciardo narrowly fails

In the second qualifying segment, Verstappen showed what he was capable of for the first time with fresh tires. With a time of 1.04.5, he opened a new era on his first outing that no other Formula 1 driver could keep up with at that time.

Although he could have saved himself a second run, Verstappen went out again. He didn’t improve, but his previous time was enough for first place. Sainz finished Q2 in second place ahead of Russell, Hamilton and Piastri. The Q3 hurdle was once again too high for Aston Martin. Fernando Alonso was clearly eliminated in P15 after his teammate had already been hit in Q1.

Nico Hülkenberg managed to get into Q3 with a dream lap on the last attempt, while Kevin Magnussen could not get past P13. At the same time, the working day also ended for Daniel Ricciardo (P11), Pierre Gasly (P12) and Yuki Tsunoda (P14). The end was particularly bitter for Ricciardo, as he was only 0.015 seconds behind tenth-placed Esteban Ocon.

The weather: In brilliant sunshine, the Formula 1 qualifying in Spielberg became a real heat battle. The thermometer showed 31 degrees Celsius at the start of the session, and the track temperature was even 47 degrees. Rain was of course out of the question in these conditions.