Lando Norris dominated qualifying to take a superb pole position for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
The McLaren managed to break into the 1:09.000s to secure a confidence-boosting result. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc appeared to confirm Ferrari’s upgrades have made some improvement with second place, albeit down on Norris by half-a-second.
The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri was third, as both he and Max Verstappen were affected by a late yellow flag, with the Dutchman starting a lowly seventh, just ahead of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who took a stunning eighth.
Q1 saw Verstappen the first of the big guns to set a time, a 1:05.106s, but Norris immediately displaced him, setting a 1:04.672s, as team-mate Piastri went wide on the exit of Turn 4 on his first lap.
Piastri did then set a clean lap, but was three tenths off Norris, with Hamilton popping up in fourth, just short of Verstappen’s time.
Bortoleto elevated himself up into the top 10, setting a time faster than Antonelli to go fifth with five minutes to go.
Albon displaced Bortoleto by one place, as Alonso and Bearman got themselves up in to the safety zone as Tsunoda was unable get another lap in, condemning him to another Q1 exit.
Colapinto just managed to squeeze in too, with Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll all joining Tsunoda.
The Japanese could be pleased that he was two tenths off Verstappen, but it was not enough and no consolation.
A frustrated Sainz said the Williams was “undriveable” and was left to rue another difficult afternoon, later confirming that the issues were stemming from a damaged floor on the car.
Bortoleto stuns with brilliant lap as Hadjar misses out
Two minutes into Q2 and Verstappen set the benchmark of a 1:05.103s, with Liam Lawson setting a good time to be just a tenth behind the Dutchman.
Piastri quickly humbled those times, going half a second faster, with Norris then set a 1:04.410s to go a tenth ahead, but it wasn’t just the McLaren driver on fire.
The heat and one car seemingly going wide on the exit of the final corner onto the start-finish straight caused the dry grass to catch alight, bringing out the red flag.
Amid a 10 minute delay, it was confirmed that no sparks via the titanium skid blocks, which were thought to be caused by similar previous fires, created the flames.
Running resumed with Alonso and Albon at risk, along with Gasly and Bearman, who went eighth with a minute to go, and then Bortoleto then stunned everyone by 1:04.846s, to go into third, but was quickly pushed down by Verstappen.
This put Antonelli into the danger zone, but his next lap put him eighth, elevated him just three places, still leaving him at risk.
Lawson backed out of his final lap, as Gasly went sixth. Albon could not improve, sending him out, along with Bearman, Colapinto and Hadjar, his team-mate remaining safe, with Alonso just missing out as Antonelli narrowly remaining in the top 10.
Late yellow flag halts Piastri as Norris betters time to take pole
With Verstappen continuously complaining to stand-in engineer Simon Rennie that his RB21 had no grip, it seemed that pole position would be between the two McLarens.
Piastri’s first run saw him immediately wiggle his MCL39 out of Turn 1 putting Norris ahead, who set a 1:04.268s, nearly three tenths ahead. Verstappen was third, six tenths behind on a used set of tyres.
Leclerc went second, as Russell bumped Verstappen down to sixth, as Hamilton took fourth.
With three minutes to go, everyone came back out to make their final runs. Verstappen went first, but a quick yellow flag, caused by Gasly spinning at the final corner, saw his DRS deactivated.
It also affected Piastri’s lap, leaving Norris free to claim pole, but not before he went quicker still, a brilliant 1:03.971s saw him confirm top spot.
Hamilton retained fourth, with Russell fifth, Lawson a brilliant sixth, with Verstappen only able to take seventh spot, with Christian Horner later stating that had the yellow flag not happened, he would have looked good for at least third.
Bortoleto, who had threatened to produce something special after his free practice showing, took a career-best eighth, with Antonelli ninth and Gasly 10th.
READ MORE – F1 2025 Austrian Grand Prix – Qualifying Results
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