Max Verstappen made things very exciting in the Austrian qualifying. On the final lap, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were close to his time, but it wasn't enough to knock the Dutchman off pole position. The Red Bull Racing driver is obviously satisfied.
Max Verstappen made things very exciting in the Austrian qualifying. On the final lap, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were close to his time, but it wasn't enough to knock the Dutchman off pole position. The Red Bull Racing driver is obviously satisfied.
Verstappen recorded a yellow first and second sector on his last lap, which made it look like Leclerc might start from first place again, but nothing was further from the truth. Thanks to a great third and final sector, Verstappen was 29 thousandths below Leclerc's time.
"We had to wait a long time between the two laps," Verstappen said of the crashes of both Mercedes in Q3, "that's not great when you're in the flow that you want to go through in one go."
"The track temperature drops and the wind direction changes, but in the end it was very exciting in qualifying. It's a challenging track to be on at the top, There aren't many corners, but the ones we have here are very tricky. It's easy to make mistakes," he continued.
The 24-year-old Dutchman continued: "I'm very happy with the pole, but we all know that the points will only be distributed on Saturday and Sunday. I think we have a very good car. Qualifying is usually not our strongest point, so I hope we can get through the first corner without any problems. Anything can happen from there, but I'm confident in the car."
Verstappen also has some nice words for the crowd at the Red Bull Ring. "It's really nice to see so many fans and so much orange here. The support I've been getting here for years certainly puts a smile on my face. I hope we can have a great weekend," he concludes.