Austria Grand Prix 2024: Max Verstappen takes pole, Lando Norris and George Russell get 2 and 3

Regening World Champion Max Verstappen secured the pole for the Austrian Grand Prix, outpacing Lando Norris by four-tenths. Norris managed to edge out Mercedes driver George Russell for the second place. This gave Verstappen a pole after the Imola Grand Prix a few weeks back. 

Meanwhile, positions four to ten were filled by Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, and Esteban Ocon. Leclerc had a significant off on his final lap, heading into the gravel at turn six. It's worth noting that Oscar Piastri finished third but lost his lap time for exceeding track limits. Hamilton and Magnusser are also under investigation. 

Meanwhile, Verstappen praised his car's performance, saying, “On fire in qualifying, the car was really strong!” However, the three-time World Champion is under investigation for driving unnecessarily slowly at the pit lane exit during Q3.

Poor Q1 for Aston Martin

Lance Stroll was out in Q1! Fernando Alonso barely made it through, but his teammate Lance Stroll did not. The bottom five and out in Q1 are Alexander Albon, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, and Guanyu Zhou.

They will start from the bottom of the grid on race day i.e. on Sunday. Meanwhile, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finished in P7 on new tyres. Despite this, he was not looking happy with his performance as he was heard saying on the team radio. He remarked, "Ah, I’m just slow mate." The top three were Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Nico Hulkenberg finds a way to Q3.

Daniel Ricciardo narrowly missed out on Q3, finishing P11, just 0.015 seconds short. The bottom five eliminated in Q2 were Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, and Fernando Alonso.

Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon managed to sneak through to Q3. The top three in Q2 were Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, and Mercedes’ George Russell. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton clinched eighth position.

Here is the final starting grid for the Austrian Grand Prix: