Max puts Mercs in shade again
Max Verstappen yesterday secured his second pole position in a week after storming to the front for today’s Styrian Grand Prix.
The championship leader finished 0.194 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas with rival Lewis Hamilton back in third.
However, Hamilton will be promoted to the front row with Bottas bumped back to fifth after he was penalised for his bizarre pit-lane spin on Friday.
Lando Norris continued his fine season by grabbing fourth for Mclaren and will take advantage of Bottas’ penalty to move up one spot on the grid. Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez finished fifth.
Red Bull arrived in the Styrian mountains as the in-form team having won the past three rounds.
And they are primed to win their fourth in succession after Verstappen claimed the sixth pole of his career to leave Hamilton in his shade.
The Mercedes driver is now on a run of four races without adding to the century of poles he scored at last month’s Spanish Grand Prix.
For Verstappen, who is a dozen points ahead of Hamilton, there were no such concerns as he cruised to the front spot.
“It has been a very good weekend,” said Verstappen, 23, who completed a practice double at the Red Bull Ring on Friday.
“Again in qualifying the car was good to drive. It is not easy to deal with the traffic to get a clean run but the first lap in Q3 was good enough in the end.
“I am super happy to be on pole at Red Bull’s home race. It will be very tight tomorrow. It is never easy and hopefully it will be as interesting as it was last weekend in France.”