Red Bull’s world championship leader Max Verstappen will start on pole for the Austrian Grand Prix after edging out Lando Norris for McLare...
Red Bull’s world championship leader Max Verstappen will start on pole for the Austrian Grand Prix after edging out Lando Norris for McLaren in qualifying on Saturday as Lewis Hamilton resigned himself to another trying weekend.
Verstappen’s third pole in a row puts him in a strong position to stretch his 18 point lead over Hamilton in Sunday’s ninth race of the Formula One season.
The Dutch driver’s teammate Sergio Perez will start on the second row alongside Hamilton’s Mercedes at the Red Bull-owned Spielberg circuit.
“Hopefully we can finish it off tomorrow,” said the 23-year-old, who was cheered on by a sea of Dutch fans at the first Grand Prix weekend to welcome back a capacity crowd since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“To see all the fans cheering is an amazing sight,” he said.
“Even before Q1 started they were just jumping and bouncing around and they were having a good time, especially of course already with the last one and a half years everyone has gone through and to open it up again.”
Verstappen topped the time sheets in Q1 and Q2, and then nailed the prime seat in the grid with a flying lap of 1min 03.720sec in Q3.
He won from pole in France and last weekend’s...
