Pole for Verstappen, double crash for Mercedes

Sunny. Dry. Air +19…18С, route +37…33С

Qualifying at Spielberg determined the order of the drivers at the start of Saturday’s sprint – the fifth time in history and the second of the season after Imola, the weekend was held in an experimental format, which will be used more often next year .

The morning practice was interrupted twice by red flags, nobody managed to work with tires on long runs and Max Verstappen showed the best time on a short run with Soft tires. Norris had problems with the new power plant in the morning – and before qualifying he got the old one. The fitters were on time.

Towards the race they strictly approached compliance with the limits of the track and when all wheels left the white line in turn ten, they automatically canceled two laps at once – the current one and the next.

The stands were filled with fans and filled with orange smoke already Friday, one of the riders joked that the Netherlands would be empty this weekend.

In the first session, half of the riders took to the track right away, and the other half left a little later. Everyone used Soft and drove two or three fast laps in one series.

Sainz, Latifi, Stroll, Verstappen, Elbon, Vettel and Russell had canceled lap times due to track deviation.

Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen took the top three places and gave up on the second attempt, the rest left again, but the top three remained the same.

Charles Leclerc set the fastest time with a lap time of 1:05.419. Both Aston Martin drivers dropped out for the third weekend in a row, as did Riccardo, Zhou and Latifi.

In the second session, the strategy remained the same: multiple rounds on one set of Soft.

Norris blocked the rubber in Turn 4, ran into a gravel trap – kept moving, but flew out in the first and turned into the pits due to brake problems.

Tsunoda, Perez, Norris and Hamilton had all canceled lap times because they were off the track.

In the first attempt Hamilton showed the best time – 1:05.475. In the second, Leclerc was faster – 1:05.287, and Verstappen was second.

Charles Leclerc took the lead in the minutes of the second session. Five teams – Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, Haas F1 and Alpine reached the final in full force. Gasley, Albon, Bottas, Tsunoda and Norris dropped out of the further battle.

In the final, the wind increased, complicating the task. In the opening minutes Hamilton crashed the car and took off in the seventh corner. The session was stopped with red flags.

Lewis was not injured, but a dangerous G-sensor went off and he was taken to a medical center. Ten minutes later the riders continued to fight and soon Hamilton returned to the team.

Schumacher had to cancel his lap time because he went off track.

As soon as the riders took off, another Mercedes driver – George Russell – crashed into the car and took off in the final corner. Red flags appeared again.

George exited the cockpit of the wrecked car and entered the runway without permission to do so – the stewards will consider this incident later.

The intermission lasted another ten minutes. Leaving the pit lane, the green light came on with two and a half minutes remaining before the end of qualifying.

In the last attempt, Leclerc took the lead, but Verstappen was 0.029 seconds faster. The first three pass in eight hundredths.

Max Verstappen won qualifying at Spielberg with his third pole of the season and 16th of his career.

After qualifying, Sergio Perez was called to the stewards. In the second session, the rider left the track in the eighth corner, but this circle was not canceled immediately – and Sergio went to the final of qualifying. In the evening, the stewards canceled not only the lap in which the Mexican was off track, but also all his laps in the qualifying final, leaving Sergio only 13th in the sprint.

Verstappen and Leclerc will start from the front row in Saturday’s sprint, Sainz and Russell from second, Okon and Magnussen from third.

Qualification Results

* Sergio Pérez has been penalized with a lap time cancellation for going off track in the second part of qualifying and all the laps he completed in the final.