Formula 1: Verstappen took pole of 29 thousandths from Leclerc in a difficult qualifying for Mercedes

It’s Friday but in Austria there was a ranking, exciting and turbulent. Since this is an appointment with the sprint – this Saturday at 11:30 on Fox Sports and Star + -, after the first training session dominated by Max Verstappen, the starting order of the short race with the Formula 1 champion in the lead has been defined . He was with right 29 and 82 thousandths of advantage in the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, respectively, in a Q3 in which the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collided just minutes apart.

With gusts of wind From 100 km / h, as happened in the only test of the day, Leclerc and Sainz started the Ferrari ahead of qualifying while Verstappen remained off the track. Even without him, Haas was also encouraged and temporarily had the “1”, first with Kevin Magnussen and then with Mick Schumacher, who effectively passed a Fernando Alonso first.

The champion of the category has just come out with 11 minutes to go and when he appeared among the five eliminated and Ferrari was 1-2 with Leclerc and Sainz – who previously had the best time canceled for having exceeded the limits of the track-. Despite being slow to set a fast lap, the one he did five minutes from the end, Ferrari surprised him again because Sainz lowered the best time first and then Leclerc was the benchmark for Q1 with 1: 05.419.

Out of the first phase of the ranking the two Aston Martins remained againSebastian Vettel (20th) and Lance Stroll (17th), Nicholas Latifi’s Williams (19th) after surprisingly reaching Q3 at Silverstone, Guanyu Zhou’s Alfa Romeo (18th, which raced despite the terrible accident five days ago) and Daniel La McLaren of Ricciardo (16th), saves Pierre Gasly by tenths. “It’s painful”summed up the German Vettel.

In Q2, Ocon was the first to set the time (1: 06.488) that Leclerc improved and that Verstappen immediately dropped by 203 thousandths. But in the fight for pole there was an unexpected rival: Hamilton, who was first, with 30 thousandths of an advantage over the Dutchman. His Mercedes wasn’t the only powerful one, as Russell was third (at 0.233). And they still had something else in store, because the seven-time English world champion improved his time even more (1: 05.475) by extending the distance with the Dutchman.

However, Leclerc was the fastest, even in Q2: with a time of 1: 05.287 he took just 87 thousandths from Verstappen and 188 from Hamilton, while Sainz, Russell and Checo Pérez – who went out on lap 8 but have however held in the race, which could then be penalized by the stewards, they completed that leading group and Haas managed to get both of his cars into Q3, with Magnussen seventh and Schumacher tenth.

It was defined by the Alpine troops of Ocon (8th) and Alonso (9th). only five teams will advance to the final part of the qualitybecause out there remained the Alfa Tauri (Pierre Gasly, 11th, and Yuki Tsunoda, 14th), Alex Albon’s Williams (12th), Bottas’s Alfa Romeo (13th) and Norris’ McLaren (15th) °). don’t have fun all day with the performance of your machine.

Still on the soft tires, the one that best suits the Red Bull Ring when it comes to setting good times, the drivers were quick to go out for a spin and have toggled the lead up to 1: 05.092’s Max Verstappen, who did not want pole to slip away at Red Bull. But the difference with Leclerc was less than a tenth (0.091) and, with seven minutes to go, the fight was open.

Constrained by the track limits, Hamilton went wide exiting the difficult Turn 7 and smashed the right side of the Mercedescausing the red flag with five minutes and 29 seconds left. “I’m so sorry guys, I’m so sorry for damaging the car”the Englishman managed to say, who also confirmed that he was physically fine, although very sorry because he went from fighting for pole to having his mechanics work against the clock to fix the suspension for the sprint.

With five minutes left, Russell was the first to come out of the restart. But, far from improving the weather, with two and a half minutes remaining he hit the rear of the Mercedes at turn 10 -the last one-, closing a forgettable Q3 for the champion team, which had shown great improvements in this ranking.

With only one chance for the fastest lap, the pole was defined by the checkered flag. Haas was the first to go out and there was a good reason: while Magnussen was eighth, his teammate Schumacher ran a race against the clock for his fastest lap after his opening time was removed for having exceeded the limits of the track.

Without the Mercedes in the race – fifth fifth (Russell) and ninth (Hamilton) -, Leclerc 1: 05.013 was first, ahead of Sainz. But a few moments later the pole went to Verstappenwhich lowered the minute and five seconds (1: 04.984), to be at 29 and 82 thousandths of the Ferrari. Meanwhile, Checo is fourth (0.420) with the other Red Bull, while Russell keeps fifth place.

Finally, the Haas finished seventh (Magnussen) and eighth (Schumacher), behind Ocon, while the other Alpine one, Alonso’s, could only overtake Hamilton, who closed the top 10 in the starting order of the this Saturday’s short race, which will see the grid on Sunday order and points for the championship.

First, there will be a new training session (at 7:30 am in Argentina), while on Sunday the Austrian Grand Prix will be held from 10. All broadcast by Star +, with exclusive and uncut cameras, and Fox Sports.