Austrian GP: Formula 1: Reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen continued his dream run as he secured his fourth straight pole this season. Despite being frustrated due to track limits, Verstappen managed to put in 1:04.391 in the final lap to take the P1.
Meanwhile, Ferrari had a brilliant outing as duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz secured P2 & P3, respectively.
McLaren’s upgrade did wonders as Norris finished fourth ahead of Hamilton, who secured fifth.
Lance Stroll beat Alonso in the Aston Martin battle, whilst Hulkenberg finished eighth for Haas.
Gasly ended ninth for Alpine and Albon took the P10 after his deleted lap.
Verstappen overcame deleted lap times in Q1 and Q2 – with plenty of drivers, including Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez, falling foul of track limits – to make it into the top 10 shootout and deliver his pole-grabbing effort of 1m 04.391s.
Perez was absent from the Q3 battle after dropping out in the second phase with successive deleted times, leaving the updated Ferraris to take the fight to Verstappen – Leclerc missing out by just 0.048s after an aggressive final lap.
Sainz took third, another tenth-and-a-half adrift, with Lando Norris delivering a stellar performance in his updated McLaren to secure a spot on the second row, denying the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.
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Nico Hulkenberg continued his run of Q3 appearances with another strong drive to eighth position, slotting in front of Alpine driver Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Alex Albon, who starred once again despite losing a lap over track limits.
A particularly large number of deleted lap times – the running theme of qualifying – led to some dramatic exits in Q2, with George Russell unable to recover from a track limits violation en route to 11th in his Mercedes, just ahead of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine.
Oscar Piastri had to settle for 13th in the second of the McLaren machines, without the luxury of team mate Norris’ upgrade package, while Valtteri Bottas was the fastest of the Alfa Romeos in 14th, despite a wild spin in Q1.
But the headline from Q2 was Perez’s elimination after he lost all of his lap times for running over the white lines, leaving him back in 15th and facing yet another race-day recovery after similar situations in Monaco, Spain and Canada.
Yuki Tsunoda was in the mix for a Q2 spot but lost a lap time for track limits after the clock had stopped and endured an early qualifying bath in 16th, along with the Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu and Williams rookie Logan Sargeant.
Kevin Magnussen had little to celebrate at the end of qualifying as he took a lowly 19th, ahead of what will be the Haas driver’s 150th Grand Prix start, with the under-pressure Nyck De Vries 20th and last in his AlphaTauri.
Austrian GP Schedule
The Sprint Shootout will take place on Saturday followed by the Sprint Race. The main race will take place on Sunday.
Sprint Shootout, Date – 1 July
Timings – 3:30 PM – 4:14 PM IST
Sprint Race, Date – 1 July
Timings – 8 – 8:30 PM
Race, Date – 2nd July
Timings – 6:30 PM IST
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Austrian GP LIVE STREAMING DETAILS:
Where can you watch Sprint, and Race on TV?
The Sprint, and Race will not be telecast on television in India.
Where can you watch Sprint, and Race? – Live Stream
F1 fans in India can Live Stream all the formula 1 action on the F1TVPro App and Website.
Location – The Red Bull Ring, Spielberg, Austria
Number of Laps – 71
Circuit Length – 4.318 km
Race Distance – 306.452 km
When was the track built?
The track known today as the Red Bull Ring was created in 1995 when it was decided to turn the Osterreichring circuit into a shorter, more modern race track.
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