Red Bull’s Formula One world championship leader Max Verstappen took pole position for his team’s home Styrian Grand Prix on Saturday and set up another duel with title rival Lewis Hamilton.

Seven times world champion Hamilton qualified third at Austria’s Red Bull Ring but will join Verstappen on the front row because Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas, second fastest, collected a three-place grid penalty in Friday practice.

Verstappen leads Hamilton by 12 points after seven rounds, with three wins each, and Sunday’s race promises to be another thrilling battle between the championship’s two outstanding drivers.

The pole, with a lap 0.194 quicker than Bottas’s best, was Verstappen’s second in a row after France last weekend, and third of the season. It was also Red Bull’s first at the Spielberg circuit.

“I’m sure again tomorrow it will be very tight,” said the Dutch driver after posting a fastest time of one minute 03.841 seconds with his first run of the final session. His second lap was slower, but still quicker than anyone else.

“Hopefully again it will be as interesting as in France,” added Verstappen, who won at Le Castellet after overtaking Hamilton on the penultimate lap as part of a bold two-stop strategy.

Hamilton said he had done all he could but his second run had not been one of his best efforts and he made mistakes on the final run.

“Nonetheless it’s still on the front row after the penalty,” said the Briton. “I did everything I could and we go into the race tomorrow for a fight.

“They’ve generally had a quarter of a second on us all weekend. We’ve managed to eke closer in qualifying but in race trim yesterday they were 0.25 ahead of us most of the time,” he added of Red Bull’s speed.

“It will be interesting to see whether or not we can manage it. I don’t think we have raw pace to overtake them, that’s for sure, but we might just be able to keep up. Maybe tomorrow we’ll be surprised, maybe it rains.”


Discover more from LN247

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.