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Grand Prix qualifying results: Verstappen on pole for Styrian GP

Max Verstappen took pole position for the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring for Red Bull Racing on Saturday, the eighth round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship season.

Watch: Starting Grid for the Styrian Grand Prix

Verstappen will start ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Lando Norris (McLaren) after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3. 

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) was second quickest in Q3, but his grid drop for spinning in the pitlane in practice demotes him to fifth.

UPDATE: After the session, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Bottas in Q3.

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Styrian Grand Prix qualifying results: Verstappen on pole from Hamilton

Cla Driver Time Gap km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
1'03.841 243.492
2 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
1'04.067 0.226 242.633
3 United Kingdom Lando Norris
1'04.120 0.279 242.432
4 Mexico Sergio Perez
1'04.168 0.327 242.251
5 Finland Valtteri Bottas
1'04.035 0.194 242.754
6 France Pierre Gasly
1'04.236 0.395 241.995
7 Monaco Charles Leclerc
1'04.472 0.631 241.109
8 Spain Fernando Alonso
1'04.574 0.733 240.728
9 Canada Lance Stroll
1'04.708 0.867 240.229
10 United Kingdom George Russell
1'04.671 0.830 240.367
11 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
1'04.514 0.673 240.952
12 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
1'04.800 0.959 239.888
13 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
1'04.808 0.967 239.859
14 Germany Sebastian Vettel
1'04.875 1.034 239.611
15 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
1'04.913 1.072 239.471
16 Canada Nicholas Latifi
1'05.175 1.334 238.508
17 France Esteban Ocon
1'05.217 1.376 238.355
18 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
1'05.429 1.588 237.582
19 Germany Mick Schumacher
1'06.041 2.200 235.381
20 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin
1'06.192 2.351 234.844

What happened in Q1?

Verstappen set the benchmark at 1m04.498s, 0.048s quicker than Bottas and 0.095s faster than Norris at the halfway point of the session. Hamilton was the best part of two tenths off the pace in fourth.

Only the top four didn’t run again, such was the tightness of the times in the midfield. Tsunoda then vaulted up to fourth, with Perez jumping to fifth, the duo demoting Hamilton to sixth.

Falling at the first hurdle were Williams’ Nicholas Latifi (missing Q2 by 0.033s), Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen (who took a trip through the gravel at Turn 4) and the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, who were the only cars over a second off the pace but separated by 0.151s.

Styrian Grand Prix Q1 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas

Cla Driver Chassis Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull 1'04.489 241.045
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 1'04.537 0.048 0.048 240.866
3 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren 1'04.584 0.095 0.047 240.691
4 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 1'04.608 0.119 0.024 240.601
5 Mexico Sergio Perez
Red Bull 1'04.638 0.149 0.030 240.490
6 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 1'04.672 0.183 0.034 240.363
7 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 1'04.745 0.256 0.073 240.092
8 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 1'04.765 0.276 0.020 240.018
9 Canada Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 1'04.821 0.332 0.056 239.811
10 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 1'04.859 0.370 0.038 239.670
11 Spain Fernando Alonso
Alpine 1'04.971 0.482 0.112 239.257
12 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams 1'05.033 0.544 0.062 239.029
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 1'05.051 0.562 0.018 238.963
14 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 1'05.092 0.603 0.041 238.812
15 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 1'05.142 0.653 0.050 238.629
16 Canada Nicholas Latifi
Williams 1'05.175 0.686 0.033 238.508
17 France Esteban Ocon
Alpine 1'05.217 0.728 0.042 238.355
18 Finland Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 1'05.429 0.940 0.212 237.582
19 Germany Mick Schumacher
Haas 1'06.041 1.552 0.612 235.381
20 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin
Haas 1'06.192 1.703 0.151 234.844

What happened in Q2?

In Q2, the pole position protagonists went out on medium tyres to start with. Bottas set the initial pace at 1m04.724s, which was beaten by both Verstappen’s 1m04.540s and Perez, who ran the soft from the start.

Hamilton was only sixth at this point, after running wide at Turn 3 on his first run. That forced him to take a second push lap and he rose to third.

Verstappen also took a second push lap on the mediums, lowering his P1 time to 1m04.433s. AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly then took the top spot on softs with 1m04.429s. Bottas improved to third on mediums, 0.014s off Verstappen, with Norris 0.024s off that time on softs.

These improvements meant that Hamilton again slipped back to sixth and only a few tenths off the cut-off line. He ran again on a second set of fresh mediums, producing 1m04.512s for P5 but at least within a tenth of Gasly.

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On the final runs, Norris grabbed P1 for a moment at 1m04.298s before Perez produced 1m04.197s to set the fastest time of the session by a tenth of a second.

Knocked out at this point were Williams’s George Russell (by just 0.008s), Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz (who lost his time for exceeding track limits), McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel (who also lost his fastest time for track limits) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).

Styrian Grand Prix Q2 results: Perez fastest from Norris

Cla Driver Chassis Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Mexico Sergio Perez
Red Bull 1'04.197 242.142
2 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren 1'04.298 0.101 0.101 241.761
3 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 1'04.429 0.232 0.131 241.270
4 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull 1'04.433 0.236 0.004 241.255
5 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 1'04.443 0.246 0.010 241.217
6 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 1'04.512 0.315 0.069 240.959
7 Spain Fernando Alonso
Alpine 1'04.582 0.385 0.070 240.698
8 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 1'04.631 0.434 0.049 240.516
9 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 1'04.646 0.449 0.015 240.460
10 Canada Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 1'04.663 0.466 0.017 240.397
11 United Kingdom George Russell
Williams 1'04.671 0.474 0.008 240.367
12 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr.
Ferrari 1'04.800 0.603 0.129 239.888
13 Australia Daniel Ricciardo
McLaren 1'04.808 0.611 0.008 239.859
14 Germany Sebastian Vettel
Aston Martin 1'04.875 0.678 0.067 239.611
15 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 1'04.913 0.716 0.038 239.471

What happened in Q3?

In the top-10 shootout, Hamilton set the benchmark at 1m04.205s but that was blown away by Verstappen’s 1m03.841s.

Norris was third after the first runs, ahead of Bottas and Perez (who was on the softs he used in Q2). On a second push lap on these tyres, Hamilton improved to 1m04.067s but remained second.

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On the second runs, Hamilton ran off track at the penultimate corner, but was on a slower lap anyway. Verstappen produced another lap good enough for pole, but didn’t quite improve his time, while Bottas jumped up to second with 1m04.035s, but his three-place grid drop will mean he starts fifth.

Hamilton, Norris and Perez will all move up as a result, with Gasly starting sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Tsunoda (who was penalized for hampering Bottas and drops to 11th on the grid), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).

Styrian Grand Prix Q3 results: Verstappen takes pole

Cla Driver Chassis Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen
Red Bull 1'03.841 243.492
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 1'04.035 0.194 0.194 242.754
3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 1'04.067 0.226 0.032 242.633
4 United Kingdom Lando Norris
McLaren 1'04.120 0.279 0.053 242.432
5 Mexico Sergio Perez
Red Bull 1'04.168 0.327 0.048 242.251
6 France Pierre Gasly
AlphaTauri 1'04.236 0.395 0.068 241.995
7 Monaco Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 1'04.472 0.631 0.236 241.109
8 Japan Yuki Tsunoda
AlphaTauri 1'04.514 0.673 0.042 240.952
9 Spain Fernando Alonso
Alpine 1'04.574 0.733 0.060 240.728
10 Canada Lance Stroll
Aston Martin 1'04.708 0.867 0.134 240.229

 

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