Home » Austrian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen on sprint race pole with Lando Norris third

Austrian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen on sprint race pole with Lando Norris third

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Austrian Grand Prix: Max Verstappen on sprint race pole with Lando Norris third

The Austrian Grand Prix is live on 5 Live and the BBC Sport website

Lewis Hamilton qualified only 18th for Saturday’s sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix after what he called “bad time usage” by Mercedes.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole, just as he did on Friday for the main grand prix, ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez and McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg was fourth ahead of the Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton also became tangled up with Verstappen during the first session.

There was one change in the order as Hulkenberg and Leclerc both faced stewards’ investigations.

Hulkenberg’s team received a suspended fine for an unsafe release from the pits, when he ran over his own tyre, launching the car into the air.

Leclerc has been handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Seven-time champion Hamilton was behind Haas driver Kevin Magnussen trying to get a gap to start his final lap, after his fastest lap time – which would have easily got him into the second session – was deleted for exceeding track limits.

Waiting in turn behind Magnussen, Hamilton was at Turn 10 as Verstappen came up behind him trying to finish a lap.

In apparent retaliation, Verstappen then overtook Hamilton down the pit straight and seemed to impede him into Turn One at the start of Hamilton’s final flying lap, which was not fast enough to progress out of the first session.

It remains to be seen whether the Verstappen-Hamilton incident will be investigated – there has been no report of it as yet.

Hamilton said: “Just timing. Not right. Sprint race doesn’t really matter anyway. Just have some fun from the back. It is what it is. I don’t really feel anything about it.”

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On a bad day for Mercedes, Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell, who did make it beyond the first session, will line up 15th because hydraulic problems that required a steering column change prevented him running again.

At the front, Perez saved his blushes from Friday, when he qualified 15th for the grand prix after a series of track limits transgressions, by making it an all Red Bull front row for the sprint, which starts at 15:30 UK time.

But the Mexican was 0.493 seconds slower than Verstappen – larger than the margin separating Perez from Esteban Ocon’s Alpine in ninth place.

Behind the Ferraris, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso will start the sprint seventh ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll, Ocon and Magnussen.

Sainz impressed in the first session. He was in the pits for most of it with a brake-by-wire problem and managed to re-join at the end with time for only one flying lap – with which he went fastest of all.

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