George Russell claimed pole position for the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix on Saturday in a dramatic qualifying where he was cleared in over a potential yellow-flag infringement after Max Verstappen crashed into the barriers.
Russell clocked 1 minute 6.113 seconds in his Mercedes on the 4,321-kilometres Red Bull Ring but faced an anxious wait of a few minutes whether he had slowed down sufficiently after Verstappen lost the car into a right turn and crashed into the barriers.
He was cleared by stewards and despite the incident took pole with a massive advantage of .236 ahead of Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton was .295 back in third in the other Ferrari and championship leader Kimi Antonelli fourth in the other Mercedes, .301 back.
It was a dramatic qualifying where Verstappen from home team Red Bull just squeezed into Q3 by a mere four-hundredths of a second in 10th place but was then on fire with an early lead which was however quickly bettered by Antonelli while Russell moved into second.
Hamilton and then Leclerc betterd that time but Russell had the last laugh, after also topping third practice earlier on another hot day in Austria.
Russell has not won a grand prix proper since the season-opener in Australia. The next five races were won by Antonelli before the Italian teenager failed to finish two weeks ago in Barcelona where Hamilton celebrated his first victory as a Ferrari driver.
Antonelli tops the championship 41 points ahead of Hamilton and 50 ahead of Russell.
