Verstappen raced to Spielberg pole, Leclerc qualified second

2023-06-30 16:54:07

The Dutchman in the Red Bull was just 48 thousandths of a second ahead of Ferrari man Charles Leclerc in Spielberg qualifying on Friday. Third was his teammate Carlos Sainz. For Verstappen it was the 26th pole of his career. The sprint is scheduled for Saturday in Styria – the weather conditions are not clear. The qualification remained dry.

“Of course I’m very happy with the pole position, but we have a very long weekend ahead of us,” Verstappen remained relatively sober after the fourth pole position in a row. “We know it’s a very different weekend with a very different format, but of course I’m very happy with today. Tomorrow will be a very different day, but at least the car is fast and that’s the most important thing.”

Leclerc was happy about “it feels good to have completed a clean qualifying session again. We were very close to Max, but today it wasn’t enough. Overall, I don’t think we expected to be so close to the Red Bulls be, so it’s good,” said last year’s winner. Ferrari had come to Upper Styria with a new front wing and underbody. “We’ve put ourselves in a good position to try and get on the podium on Sunday,” said Spaniard Sainz.

Lando Norris surprised in fourth place in the renewed McLaren, followed by Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso had to settle for seventh place in the Aston Martin. Sergio Perez, on the other hand, missed the last qualifying section for the fourth time in a row. Because the race control canceled three fast Q2 laps for the Mexican because he had left the track in the last corner, he only ended up in 15th place.

“What a damn joke about the track limit,” Perez said. But the strict interpretation of the rules by race director Niels Wittich was not just fatal for the Red Bull man. The German made cutbacks at half the field, which also caused George Russell to lose his right to start in Q3 and slip down to eleventh place.

“We don’t do it on purpose, but at these speeds and all these high-speed corners, it’s so difficult to judge the white line correctly,” said Verstappen, where the race director also conceded laps. “It’s always very complicated here. The cars are big, they’re heavy.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko spoke of a “farce” and had “simple” solutions ready. “Either higher curbs that slow the car down or we do Gravel (gravel; note). You sit low in the car and then you don’t see if you’re over the line. From 15th place it’s going to be difficult now,” he said in the ORF interview. “We told Max, do a safe lap, that should be enough. It was good that Charles took such risks in the last two corners.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff analyzed the result with a serious expression. “The car was simply too slow,” said the Viennese. “The long runs were okay, overall the mood is a bit depressed now. Today we got hit in the nose, everything can be different again in the race.”

In Spielberg, Saturday is all about the second sprint of the season. The sprint shootout (12.00) takes place in the morning, in which the starting grid is determined in 44 minutes. The sprint itself will take place from 4.30 p.m. (live ORF 1, Sky). The top eight drivers receive points, the winner gets eight, second place seven and eighth place one point.

Dutchman Verstappen has already won four Formula 1 races at the Red Bull Ring. The winner of six World Championship races this year will also be the favorite on Sunday (3:00 p.m.). Last year he had to admit defeat to Monegasque Leclerc in Spielberg after winning the sprint.

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