Verstappen taken aback by the gap to his rivals

Max Verstappen set the quickest time in sprint qualifying on Friday, but he was only under a tenth faster than second-placed Lando Norris. However, the Dutchman managed to raise the bar even further on Saturday to dominate both the Sprint race and the main qualifying.

The Dutchman started today's 100km sprint race from pole position which he maintained at the start. However, he faced an early challenge for the lead from the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. He fended this off and went on to claim an assured victory.

Three hours later in qualifying, Verstappen proved to be unbeatable to anyone other than himself and grabbed pole position for tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix.

“It was a good day today. I am extremely happy that we got P1 in the Sprint and put it on pole in Qualifying and am really proud of the Team that we were able to be so competitive.

"We definitely saw some good improvements after the Sprint race, it all connected and the balance of the car felt a lot better, so hopefully we can keep that going. I could really push to the limit and it felt great to be that competitive in qualifying.

"The whole session went really well and the car was in a better window; I could push harder, the car was sticking and I am actually quite surprised by the gap! It shows that small changes that you make to the car can really make a difference.

"I am looking forward to tomorrow. We have had a really good weekend so far but the most important part has to happen tomorrow, so let’s see what the race brings," noted Verstappen.

His team-mate Sergio Perez was struggling with his car once again, having lacked outright pace at the Red Bull Ring. The Mexican was not only unable to keep up with Max Verstappen, but the McLarens, Ferraris and Mercedes also proved to be stronger than the Red Bull man.

His lack of speed meant that he spent the majority of the weekend in no man's land, finishing eighth in the 100km Spielberg Sprint before securing the same spot for tomorrow's Austrian Grand Prix.

“It’s been a tricky weekend, and we have to just keep chipping away. We didn’t have the margins early on in Q1 and Q2, and we ended up using more new sets of tyres than we wanted and went into Q3 with only scrubbed sets left.

"We had much better pace than we were able to show today but unfortunately we weren’t safe enough throughout the sessions to save a new set for Q3.

"We’ve done the right changes going forward, and learnt quite a bit from today’s Sprint race which is positive. I think it is going to be really close on track tomorrow and should be an interesting battle where anything can happen," concluded Perez.

Expanding on another strong showing at the Red Bull Ring, team boss Christian Horner noted: "It is always great to be back in Austria for our home race and in front of a home crowd. Today in both the Sprint race and Qualifying, Max put on an incredible performance and especially on a track where the margins are so small.

“It is great to be on Pole here at Red Bull Ring. Checo used all of his new tyre sets in Q1 and Q2, so expectations were lower of what was achievable in Q3 as there were only scrubbed tyres available.

“We are going to need Checo to have a strong race tomorrow as the McLarens, Ferraris, and Mercedes cars are right there with us. All to play for tomorrow."