Max Verstappen took F1 Austrian GP pole by 0.048s from Charles Leclerc, with his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz in third.

Q1:

The first part in F1 Austrian GP qualifying saw some early laps but a red flag stoppage due to Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas. He spun around and couldn’t get going for some time until he managed to do so and get back into the pits to continue on.

Amid the lap deletions, Red Bull ended up 1-2 with Max Verstappen (1m05.116s) leading Sergio Perez, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz (1m05.339s) third. The drop zone saw AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda knocked out in 16th with a 1m05.784s lap – just 0.021s behind P15.

Alfa Romeo’s Bottas made it in despite causing the red flag, but teammate Zhou Guanyu (1m05.818s) was 17th from Williams’ Logan Sargeant (1m05.948s), Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m05.971s) and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries (1m05.974s).

Q2:

The second part in F1 Austrian GP qualifying saw lap deletions straight up where both the Red Bull cars of Verstappen and Perez losing their lap times to put McLaren’s Lando Norris on top for the initially running. But the Dutchman came back to go back on top.

Perez went third but his second lap got deleted as well to put him in drop zone. It was Sainz in second from Norris after the first run which saw more lap deletions. The final run saw more dramas for Perez as his third lap also got deleted to knock him out.

It was teammate Verstappen on top with a 1m04.951s lap from Sainz and Norris. Mercedes’ George Russell was another big name to be out in 11th with a 1m05.428s lap ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m05.453s) and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri (1m05.605s).

Both had their laps deleted to knock them out in Q2, with Afla Romeo’s Bottas (1m05.213s) in 14th from Red Bull’s Perez (2m06.688s)

Q3:

The final part in F1 Austrian GP qualifying saw early lap from Verstappen to take provisional pole with a 1m04.503s lap from the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Sainz. There was a lap deletion for Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll after the end of the first run.

McLaren’s Norris and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton were in the Top 5, as Williams’ Alexander Albon went for an early second run with a sixth place finish but had his lap deleted.= to drop to eighth with a 1m05.823s lap which ended his session.

Verstappen had more in his car to set a 1m04.391s lap to secure F1 Austrian GP pole by 0.048s over Leclerc (1m04.439s) and Sainz (1m04.581s). The Top 5 was rounded out by Norris (1m04.658s) and Hamilton (1m04.819s) ahead of the Aston Martin cars.

After his early lap deletion, Stroll (1m04.893s) came back well to be sixth from teammate Fernando Alonso (1m04.911s), with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg (1m05.090s) in eighth, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (1m05.170s) ninth, while Albon eventually dropped to 10th.

UPDATE: The FIA has pulled up Verstappen for impeding Magnussen during F1 Austrian GP qualifying. Additionally, the governing body revealed of 47 laps being cancelled during the qualifying: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Austrian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Qualifying%20Deleted%20Lap%20Times.pdf

UPDATE 2: Post the investigation, Verstappen has been let off by the FIA stewards and he keeps the F1 Austrian GP pole position. The stewards didn’t think the Dane had to take significant evasive action while getting through the Dutchman and since his lap time was anyhow cancelled due to track, it didn’t matter.

Here’s what they said: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Austrian%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Decision%20-%20Alleged%20impeding%20of%20Car%2020.pdf

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