Max Verstappen took a comfortable pole position from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at his Red Bull team’s home Grand Prix in Austria.
Verstappen was just 0.048s ahead of Leclerc as Carlos Sainz made a Ferrari two-three with Lando Norris fourth in the upgraded McLaren.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the Aston Martins, Lance Stroll uncharacteristically ahead of Fernando Alonso.
Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez failed to make the top 10 for the fourth race in a row.
The Mexican repeatedly failed the track boundary restrictions and was penalized a number of laps for running too wide at turns nine and 10 and will sit 15th for Sunday’s grand prix.
Perez wasn’t the only driver to struggle with the track’s limits – many drivers had laps wiped out during qualifying – but he was certainly the one who suffered the most for his transgressions.
Verstappen, who was imperious in securing his fourth consecutive pole, said: “It was very difficult because of all the edges of the track. We don’t do it on purpose, but with these speeds and high-speed corners it’s very difficult to judge the white line.
“A lot of people were getting caught, including me. It kind of takes the joy out of it but it’s still a really good lap.”
The lap of the day was undoubtedly Leclerc’s, who was right on the edge through the two high-speed corners at the end of the lap, the car dancing on the limits of adhesion as it caught a couple of twitches at over 100 mph.
Leclerc, who has had a difficult run in recent races, said: “It’s good to finally have a clean classification again and get back on the front row. The feeling has been a bit better in the last few races.
“It was about going to the last lap and I managed to put everything in. Very close to the Red Bulls. I don’t think we expected to be so close.”
