Verstappen takes Austria sprint pole amid Mercedes misery
The reigning world champion made it two poles in as many days as he led a Red Bull front-row lock out in Austria with another commanding performance.
Verstappen was 0.493s faster than Perez, who bounced back from a terrible Friday qualifying to join his teammate on the front row of the grid for Saturday’s Sprint race.
McLaren’s Lando Norris once again starred on his way to third. The Briton had sat as high as second but was shuffled down to P3 by Perez on the final runs of SQ3.
It was a horror-showing for Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton suffered a humiliating elimination in SQ1, leaving the seven-time world champion only 18th for the Sprint.
Things didn’t go much better for teammate George Russell, who will start 15th after a hydraulic problem prevented him from running in the second part of qualifying.
A stunning lap from Nico Hulkenberg put the Haas driver fourth, ahead of the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who has been summoned to the stewards over a potential impeding offence.
Fernando Alonso got the better of Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll to take seventh, while Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Haas' Kevin Magnussen completed the top-10.
Saturday's Sprint race gets underway at 3.30pm UK time.
