Verstappen beats McLaren duo to take sprint pole in Austria

F1 Grand Prix, GP Austria, Red Bull Ring

Max Verstappen went on from a solid morning practice session to top all parts of the Sprint Shootout and thereby secure the best grid slot for tomorrow's F1 Sprint at Spielberg, Austria. Lando Norris was a close second while the second McLaren of Piastri ended up third fastest.

On a track as short as the Red Bull Ring in a session as brief as the Sprint Shootout, traffic was to be expected. Both Mercedes were out first to try to be ahead of the trouble. Russell turned out to be the faster of the two while Hamilton's time was later also deleted for track limits.

Sainz slotted in behind Russell, follwoed by Norris and Leclerc. When the Red Bulls set their times it was Verstappen who once again topped the times, however by just 0.074s over Russell. Perez was a solid half second slower and down in 7th, ahead of Piastri, Ocon and Magnussen.

At Aston Martin there were clouds once again. As Stroll enjoyed a strong lap to 5th, Alonso's first lap was nearly a second off his team mate and therefore good only for 16th, forcing the Spaniard to have another go despite setting that first lap quite late in the session as well.

With 20 seconds left on the clock, Alonso started his second attempt and Hamilton tried to navigate his way through slower cars as quickly as he could. It was good enough for 11th, a nail biting situation for the 7-time World Champion. Alonso jumped ahead and so did Gasly. Sargeant improved to make the cut but was slower than Hamilton, leaving Ricciardo eliminated, alongside Hulkenberg, Albon and both Stake Sauber cars.

The second part of the session was slightly more straightforward with seemingly few cars finding issues with traffic or track limit infringements. It was also the same drivers and cars who found themselves performing relatively strong with Verstappen again topping the times, followed by Russell, Piastri and the Ferrari duo.

Kevin Magnussen missed the cut by just 0.049s and got eliminated along with the Aston Martin duo, Tsunoda and the remaining Williams Logan Sargeant.

The final pace of the Sprint Shootout was basically a long waiting game until the Mercedes were first to go out, Hamilton ahead of Russell. When they left the pitlane, everybody else simultaneously left their boxes, making up for a long queue in the pitlane. Leclerc strangely moved out of line to let more cars past him before venturing out on track. Whether it was a problem or not is not clear, but it surely made it unable for him to pass the finish line in time to start a flying lap, leaving him 10th on the Sprint grid.

Piastri turned out faster than the two Mercedes but Norris did better still, only to be topped by Verstappen at the very end. Carlos Sainz slotted into 5th, sandwiched between the Mercedes while Perez again didn't get any further than 7th, a massive 1.322s down on his own team mate.

Ocon and Gasly ended up in 8th and 9th continuing their improved form that sees them as regular top 10 contenders.