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SPIELBERG, Austria, July 3 — 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 today.
Verstappen’s third pole in a row puts him in a strong position to stretch his 18 point lead over Lewis Hamilton in tomorrow’s ninth race of the Formula one season.
“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.
The Dutch driver’s teammate Sergio Perez will start on the second row alongside Hamilton’s Mercedes at the Red Bull-owned Spielberg circuit.
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.
Norris was only denied his maiden pole by 0.048sec, the talented 21-year-old British driver’s performance the latest sign of his team’s resurgence.
“I feel epic, this is cool! That was probably one of the best laps I have done, it puts us in a great position for tomorrow,” said Lando. — AFP