Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start from the Pole Position in Saturday’s Austrian GP Sprint beating McLaren’s Lando Norris who finished second.
Red Bull again encountered some issues as Verstappen had to stop his car midway through FP1 resulting in a red flag. The team confirmed it was an Energy Recovery System issue and the the Dutchman rejoined the track after just 5 minutes.
All the drivers made just one run in SQ3, heading out on new soft tires. Charles Leclerc had a disastrous moment as he failed to cross the line before the allotted time resulting in the Monagasque not making his flying lap in SQ3.
Norris’ time of 1m04.779s looked good enough for pole position but the flying Dutchman once again proved his class clocking a time of 1m04.686s as the flag fell. Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri finished 3rd with a time of 1:04.987.
“Great to be first here in front of basically my home fans, my home grand prix,” Verstappen said afterward.
“It was a good day. It’s really been nice to drive the car. I think immediately the car was well balanced. And then you make some little adjustments going into the sprint quali and everything has been working really well.“
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez continued his disappointing run in F1 this season after a 7th-place finish in SQ3. The Mexican again never really looked to threaten the top 3, finishing with a time of 1’06.008.
“It’s a shame because we had a promising pace today, but unfortunately, we were not able to maximize this because of circumstances out of our control. I’m confident that tomorrow will be a better day, and that we can make up some ground here at our home race.” Perez said.
Austrian GP Sprint, Qualifying, And Race: When And Where To Watch
Max Verstappen will start from the Pole in Saturday’s Sprint race of the Austrian GP. This weekend’s Sprint will be the third of this season after the Chinese and Miami Grands Prix.
The Sprint will be shortly followed by the qualifying session for Sunday’s main race.
The Sprint race will start at 12 PM local time (6 AM EST), (3.30 PM IST) on Saturday. The Sprint will be followed by Qualifying which will start at 4 PM local time (10 AM EST), (7.30 PM IST)
The main race will take place on Sunday at 3 PM local time (9 AM EST), (6.30 PM IST).
Austrian GP: Broadcast And Live Streaming
F1 fans in the USA can watch all the action of the Austrian GP weekend across ESPN Network. Viewers from selected countries can subscribe to F1 TV to stream all the sessions.
Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
