George Russell has provisionally secured pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix, but he looks set to be stripped of that honour after a late Max Verstappen crash. The Dutchman went off and into the barrier towards the end of his final flying lap, with the two Mercedes cars behind him on track. Russell then put in the fastest lap of anyone, but replays showed he went through double-waved yellow flags and so that lap time looks set to be deleted. Assuming that happens, the Brit will be demoted to fourth below Kimi Antonelli, while Ferrari will inherit a front-row lockout with Charles Leclerc assuming pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Q1 and Q2 Drama
There were no surprises in Q1 with usual suspects Cadillac and Aston Martin occupying the bottom four positions as usual. Williams will have been disappointed but not entirely shocked to have been eliminated along with them, Alex Albon 17th and Carlos Sainz missing out on progression after suffering a huge snap of oversteer while exiting the final corner on his last run.
But there was almost a blockbuster end to the second part of qualifying as Red Bull took a risk by deciding to save a set of tyres and not send out Verstappen for a second run. In the end it paid off, but barely as Pierre Gasly was up in the first two sectors but, like Sainz, suffered a snap at the last corner which saw him miss out on Q3 by just 0.04 seconds.
Red Bull's Strategic Gamble
The call to keep Verstappen in the garage was not one of arrogance, but a risk taken as he had one set of soft tyres fewer than his rivals. In order to give him two goes at a pole-challenging time in Q3, Red Bull head of strategy Hannah Schmitz signed off on the decision to not send the Dutchman back out and, even though it was very tight, in the end it proved to be the right call as Verstappen was suddenly on equal footing with others in the top-10 shootout.
Q3 Chaos
It looked for a moment as though he might not need one as, with his first effort of Q3, he set a quicker lap time than anyone else had managed all weekend with a 1:06.475. But those dreaming of a home pole for Red Bull were soon dealt a blow as Antonelli edged him out by just 0.061 seconds, before Russell slotted himself in that very narrow gap between them.
Then Ferrari swooped, with first Hamilton moving to the top and then Leclerc, a result which then looked safe when Verstappen, who was improving himself, slid off track and into the barrier. Russell completed his lap and said afterwards he felt it was only a single-waved yellow, but it is up to the stewards now to decide the outcome of this one.
