Verstappen charges to Austria pole, another disaster for Perez
A vital improvement on his second lap of Q3 ensured a fourth successive pole in 2023 for Verstappen as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc missed out by just 0.048s.
Carlos Sainz was 0.190s adrift of Verstappen in third, ahead of Lando Norris, who put his upgraded McLaren on the second row with a sensational lap for fourth.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth-fastest, while Mercedes teammate George Russell was knocked out in Q2 and will start Sunday’s main race at the Red Bull Ring from 11th.
In sharp contrast to Verstappen, teammate Perez had another qualifying to forget and will line up only 15th for Red Bull’s home grand prix.
It marks the fourth weekend on the trot that Perez, who is 69 points behind Verstappen in the championship standings, has failed to reach Q3.
The Mexican's qualifying was undone by having three consecutive laps deleted for track limits in Q2.
Lance Stroll out-qualified Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso for only the second time this season as he pipped the two-time world champion to sixth.
Nico Hulkenberg claimed eighth place in his Haas, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, who completed the top-10 for Alpine and Williams respectively.
There was more disappointment for AlphaTauri’s under-pressure Nyck de Vries, who will start Sunday’s grand prix last after ending up with the slowest time in qualifying.
Saturday's action will be dedicated to the standalone F1 sprint, before the main event on Sunday.
