The Dutchman Max Verstappen, from Red Bull, remains untouchable this season in Formula 1, achieving this Friday, at the Austrian Grand Prix, the sixth pole position, out of nine possible.
In Spielberg, the current two-time world champion beat Monegasque Charles Leclerc of Ferrari by just 48 thousandths of a second, the other driver who will start from the front row of the grid.
For Verstappen, this is also his fourth pole position in a row, with a total of 26.
The Dutchman dominates the drivers’ championship, en route to ‘tri’, and looks to Spielberg for what will be his seventh win in a very successful year so far.
The lead is secured by a comfortable 69 points for his Red Bull teammate, the Mexican Sergio Pérez, who will start from the eighth row.
For Red Bull, everything continues to go very well in 2023, since the only two times that Verstappen has not won has been done by Pérez, in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
“I am very happy to be on pole position, but there is still a lot to do at the weekend,” said Verstappen, referring to the two races that await the drivers in Austria.
For the second time this year, after Baku, on Saturday, the day before the Grand Prix, a speed race will take place. Six sprint races are planned for this year in total.
Today’s qualifying marks the starting grid for Sunday, while the sprint race, barely half an hour long, will continue to have its own qualifying dispute.
On the second row of the Red Bull Ring grid will start the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and the British Lando Norris (McLaren).
Next, in the list of the first 10, are the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), seven times world champion, the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), the German Nick Hulkenberg ( Haas), Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine-Renault) and Thai Alexander Albon (Williams).
Verstappen’s favoritism is redoubled with the ‘home race’, at the Red Bull circuit, where he has already won four times.
The ‘double’ is what seems very difficult, this time, after Sergio Pérez did not qualify for Q3, the last qualifying round, falling to 15th place today.
The time he did, apparently good, was canceled for going out of track limits.
Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine-Renault), Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Frenchman Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) also had their times canceled in Q2.
The session was interrupted on one occasion, with a red flag, still in Q1, when Bottas was the victim of an accident, with no physical consequences for the Finn.
Source: TSF
