World champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull snatched a sixth pole position of the season at his team’s home track for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday.
But there was plenty of chaos in qualifying as track limit rules saw plenty of drivers caught out and a whopping 47 lap times deleted in the hour-long session.
Charles Leclerc will join the world championship leader on the front row ahead of his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz who qualified third-quickest and starts alongside Lando Norris of McLaren on the second row.
But for the fourth straight race, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez failed to make the top 10 after having three laps deleted for breaching track limits.
Verstappen himself had lap times deleted in Q1 and Q2 but managed to pull together laps after the infringements to secure pole.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner was furious a Perez.
“He’s got the pace today, he’s got a car that was easily capable of being on the first or second row, he was matching Max’s times, stay in the white lines!” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“It was strike one, strike two, ‘Checo just stay in the white lines!’ strike three, and that was it.
“Just hugely frustrating because he could have he could have been there, he could have done it. That’s the frustration. It’s fantastic that we got the pole, but it feels not complete.
“At least [Max] responded to ‘stay in the white lines’ – he did that so he built a conservatism into his laps to make sure that he had a wheel inside the line. There was a little bit more time in the car in that last sector if he hadn’t have gone for it. It was about driving with a bit of restraint.
“It was crystal clear [that it was his last opportunity]. It’s hugely frustrating. The frustrating thing is we know he can do it, he did a 4.9 on that lap, he was three hundredths off Max. He could have been four tenths slower and still been in.”
Verstappen said the drivers were made to look like ‘amateurs’.
He said in the post-qualifying press conference: “I think today looked very silly. It almost looked like we were amateurs out there the amount of lap times that were getting deleted. Some of them were so marginal – when it’s so marginal it’s impossible to judge if it’s out or in. They were still getting deleted. I don’t think it was a good look today.
“Of course people can say: ‘Yeah then stay within the white lines’. Well if it was that easy then you can take my car and try it but probably you won’t even get up to speed in time.”
He added: “If you saw the amount of lap times that were getting deleted today by the amount of drivers, it’s clearly not that easy and I don’t think we’re all idiots out there. Normally we are quite good at judging where the limit is.”
For the second time this year after Baku, a sprint race will take place on Saturday before the Grand Prix on Sunday.
Friday’s qualifying sets the starting grid for Sunday, while Saturday’s shootout session sets the grid for the sprint in the afternoon.
There will be six sprint races in total this season.
“It was very difficult because of all the track limits,” continued the Dutch driver.
“With these speeds and high-speed corners it is very difficult to judge the track limits.
“A lot of people were being caught out, including me. It takes out the joy a little bit but still a very good lap.”
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes qualified in fifth followed by the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Alex Albon (Williams) complete the top 10 on the grid.
“It feels good to finally have a clean qualifying again and to be back on the front row,” said Leclerc, who was just 0.048sec behind Verstappen.
“The feeling has been a bit better in the last few races. It was all about building up to the last lap and I managed to put everything in. Very close to the Red Bulls. I don’t think we expected to be that close.”
Dutchman Verstappen is chasing a seventh victory this season. The 25-year-old leads the title race by 69 points ahead of Mexican Perez, the only other driver to have won this season in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
Winner of the last four races, Verstappen is favourite on his team’s home Red Bull circuit.
He has already won four times there — three Austrian GPs and one Styrian GP. To achieve a one-two at home, Red Bull will have more difficulty. Perez struggled with the track limits and had his time cancelled, and will start in 15th.
Like Perez, Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) saw their times cancelled in the second qualifying session.
They will start 12th, 13th and 14th respectively.
George Russell qualified in 11th, far behind his Mercedes teammate Hamilton.
FULL GRID
Front row Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull) Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari)
2nd row Carlos Sainz (ESP/Ferrari) Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes)
3rd row Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin-Mercedes)
4th row Fernando Alonso (ESP/Aston Martin-Mercedes) Nico Hulkenberg (GER/Haas-Ferrari)
5th row Pierre Gasly (FRA/Alpine-Renault) Alex Albon (THA/Williams-Mercedes)
6th row George Russell (GBR/Mercedes) Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine-Renault)
7th row Oscar Piastri (AUS/McLaren-Mercedes) Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Alfa Romeo-Ferrari)
8th row Sergio Perez (MEX/Red Bull) Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/AlphaTauri-Red Bull)
9th row Zhou Guanyu (CHN/Alfa Romeo-Ferrari) Logan Sargeant (USA/Williams-Mercedes)
10th row Kevin Magnussen (DEN/Haas-Ferrari) Nyck de Vries (NED/AlphaTauri-Red Bull)
