The Dutchman Max Verstappen, of Red Bull, remains ‘untouchable’ in Formula 1 this season and achieved the sixth ‘pole position’, of the nine possible, during the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday.
in Spielberg, surpassed the current two-time world champion by just 48 thousandths of a second the Monegasque Charles Leclerc, of Ferrari, the other rider starting from the front row.
This is also Verstappen’s fourth pole in a row, bringing his total to 26.
The Dutchman leads the Drivers’ Championship on his way 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 colleague, Mexican Sergio Pérez, who will start from the eighth row.
Things will continue to go very well for Red Bull in 2023, as the only two times Verstappen has not won, Perez has triumphed, in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
“I am very happy to be in pole position, but there is still a lot to do at the weekend,” said Verstappen, referring to the two races ahead of the drivers in Austria.
For the second time this year, after Baku, a sprint race will take place on Saturday, the day before the Grand Prix. A total of six sprint races are scheduled for this year.
Friday’s qualifying will set the starting grid for Sunday, while the ‘sprint’ race, which is just half an hour long, will still have its own qualifying battle.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Briton Lando Norris (McLaren) will start on the second row of the Red Bull Ring grid.
Next, in the list of the top 10, ranked Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), seven-time world champion, Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Spaniard Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), German Nick Hulkenberg (Haas), Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine-Renault) and Thai Alexander Albon (Williams).
Verstappen’s favoritism is doubled by ‘running home’, on the Red Bull circuit, where he has already won four times.
The ‘double’ is that it looks very difficult this time, after Sergio Pérez failed to qualify for Q3, the final qualifying round, dropping to 15th this Friday.
The time he did, apparently good, was negated by going outside the bounds of the course.
Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine-Renault), Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Frenchman Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) also saw their times in Q2 canceled.
The session was interrupted once, with a red flag, still in Q1, when Bottas suffered an accident, with no physical consequences for the Finn.
Source: DN
