Verstappen Wins Sprint Race Pole in Austria

Max Verstappen from Red Bull secured pole position for the sprint race at the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix, edging out McLaren's Lando Norris by just 0.093 seconds. This qualifying session demonstrated the drivers' precision in critical moments.

In the final round of qualifying (SQ3), drivers waited until the last minutes to hit the track with new soft tires. The Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell led the group out of the pits. Hamilton set a time of 1m05.270s but was quickly surpassed by Russell and then by McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

Lando Norris posted the best time in the second sector and topped the charts with 1m04.779s. However, Verstappen, with superior times in the first and last sectors, secured pole with a time of 1m04.686s.

"It's great to be first here in front of my fans, at my home grand prix," commented Verstappen. "It was a good day, the car was well balanced from the start and the minor adjustments for sprint qualifying worked well."

Carlos Sainz from Ferrari took fifth position, sandwiched between the Mercedes cars. Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon, and Pierre Gasly finished in seventh, eighth, and ninth positions respectively, affected by being at the back of the line during the warm-up lap in SQ3. Charles Leclerc did not register a time in SQ3 due to a technical issue that kept him from a fast lap.

In SQ2, Kevin Magnussen had the best first sector but lost time and ended up in 11th place. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, along with Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant, completed those eliminated in this round. Stroll had a tricky moment at the last corner but managed to save it.

Hamilton had a difficult start in SQ1, losing his first time for going off track and facing traffic on his second attempt. He finally advanced in 13th place. The eliminated drivers in SQ1 were Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon, and Zhou Guanyu.

Yuki Tsunoda had a tricky spin in the last two corners at the end of the first session but was able to continue without damage.