Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed pole position for 2022 Austrian Sprint Qualifying after dominating Friday at Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen dominated FP1 with the quickest lap time but came under pressure from Ferrari and Mercedes throughout Qualifying, yet ultimately delivered in Q3 to snatch pole position for the second Sprint Qualifying race of the season.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were second and third quickest with both drivers looking to fight for victory in the Sprint tomorrow (9 July), after avoiding the drama of a dramatic Q3 session.
Now here is a full roundup of Friday’s action at the Red Bull Ring across Practice and Qualifying.
Practice
Despite overnight rain, drivers were met with dry conditions at the start of FP1 after the circuit dried up during F3 and F2 running in the morning, as Williams’ Alex Albon was first out on track.
Verstappen however soon set the pace on medium tyres with 1m 07.720 in the sixth minute, which he lowered by 0.224 seconds ten minutes later.
McLaren’s Lando Norris grinded to a halt out of Turn 5 five minutes later with a power unit issue which brought out the red flags as he ultimately missed the soft-tyre Qualifying simulations, with Verstappen leading Charles Leclerc at the time of the stoppage.
The session resumed seven minutes later as Albon again was first out on track with Verstappen amongst a few runners to opt for an early soft-tyre run, which saw him post a session-topping 1m 06.302 in the 33rd minute ahead of Leclerc and Sainz.
There however was a second red flag which came in the 39th minute, due to a loose outer-strip of the kerbing around Turn 6 finding its way onto the racing line which couldn’t be removed with a Virtual Safety Car.
Once the session resumed, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton went third and fourth for Mercedes as everyone but Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo improved on their soft-tyre runs.
Come the checkered flag, Verstappen finished fastest ahead of Leclerc by 0.255s with Russell, Sergio Perez, Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen, Sainz, Alonso, Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda rounding out the top ten.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 06.302 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.255 |
| 3 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.400 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.537 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.607 |
| 6 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.663 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Alpine | + 0.737 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.798 |
| 9 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 0.944 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.994 |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.129 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.160 |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.174 |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 1.220 |
| 15 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.280 |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 1.290 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 1.441 |
| 18 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.587 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 1.847 |
| 20 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 3.613 |
Qualifying
Q1
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was first out on track but Leclerc set the initial pace with 1m 06.762 after Sainz saw his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Alonso, Magnussen and Schumacher all then went briefly top until Leclerc regained the fastest lap with 1m 006.200 but Alonso fought back only to be displaced by Perez by 0.056s as Verstappen had his first lap deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 10.
Down in the elimination zone with six minutes left, Tsunoda headed Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen.
Verstappen however escaped with the third fastest time as Leclerc topped Q1 with 1m 05.419, whilst Tsunoda and Gasly also survived as Ricciardo qualified 16th ahead of Lance Stroll, Guanyu Zhou, Nicholas Latifi and Vettel.
Vettel initially qualified 17th but his best lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits, meaning that the four-time champion will start the Sprint from the back of the grid behind Latifi.
Q2
The frontrunners were all out on track early in Q2 with Hamilton surprisingly emerging fastest with 1m 05.038 ahead of Verstappen once opening fliers were completed.
Norris meanwhile ran wide at Turn 4 to ruin his first representative lap as he consequently backed off but then ran wide through Turn 1 which ruined his next flier.
Once everyone had completed their opening representative laps come the 10th minute, the elimination zone compromised of; Perez, Albon, Gasly, Tsunoda and Norris – although Perez had sat eighth after his second flier but his effort had been deleted for exceeding track limits.
Once the checkered flag fell, only Perez survived the drop as Gasly outqualified Albon in 11 and 12th respectively, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Tsunoda and Norris, whilst Leclerc topped Q2 with 1m 05.287 having only used fresh soft tyres on his final run.
Q3
A quiet start to the final part of Qualifying saw no cars dashing out to set a banker lap but everyone soon headed out en mass, with Verstappen setting the provisional pole lap of 1m 05.092 once the opening fliers were completed – ahead of Leclerc, Sainz, Perez and Russell.
Hamilton meanwhile backed off on his initial flier but on his next represenative flier, he lost control at Turn 7 and slid into the barriers, having lost the rear end of his Mercedes upon entry and tried to correct control of his car to no avail.
The session resumed 10 minutes later with five minutes and 29 seconds left on the clock as Alonso and Russell were first back on track, whilst everyone else bar Hamilton hung back waiting a couple of minutes for track temperatures to cool down.
Russell however lost the front end into Turn 10 and slid off into the barriers to bring the red flag back out, just moments after Alonso had improved to seventh.
Once Russell’s Mercedes had been cleared, the session resumed 10 minutes later with 2m 31s on the clock as everyone led by both Haas cars dashed out to beat the checkered flag.
Once the checkered flag fell, Leclerc initially went fastest but Verstappen ultimately snatched a third pole of 2022, as he posted 1m 04.984 to go fastest ahead of the Monegasque who joins him on the front row ahead of Sainz, Perez, Russell, Ocon, Magnussen, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 04.984 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.029 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.082 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.420 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.447 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.742 |
| 7 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.895 |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.027 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 1.119 |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 8.167 |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1m 06.160 |
| 12 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.070 |
| 13 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.159 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.691 |
| 15 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 19.687 |
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1m 06.613 |
| 17 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.234 |
| 18 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 0.288 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 0.390 |
| 20 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 0.470 |
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