Max Verstappen followed up his victory in the sprint race with another dominant performance in qualifying for Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday to take pole position for the fourth straight year at the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen clocked 1 minute, 4.314 seconds with his final attempt in the third qualifying session to beat McLaren’s Lando Norris by 0.404 seconds and take his eighth pole of the season, The Associated Press reported. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri was initially 0.472 seconds back in third but had his time deleted for narrowly going outside track limits, pushing him down to seventh place and lifting George Russell of Mercedes into third.
Carlos Sainz Jr. of Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes rounded out the top five.
Verstappen won the sprint race earlier Saturday ahead of Piastri and Norris to extend his lead in the overall standings to 71 points. The defending champion is looking for his eighth race win of the season and fifth in seven years at Red Bull's home circuit.
