Formula 1: Verstappen takes 40th pole position
Max Verstappen has achieved the 40th pole position of his career and the eighth of the season, dominating the qualifying session in Austria. The Dutch driver had to fight hard on Friday in the Sprint Qualifying and on Saturday in the race, outperforming both McLaren drivers and leaving Norris and Piastri far behind.
There are those who regret that Max is always on top, with the refrain that "the same guy always wins". Many of them are the same ones who celebrated every Hamilton record for eight years, without any opposition, except for Nico Rosberg, whom he defeated in 2016. However, the Dutchman has opponents now, with two cars perhaps faster, whose pilots are diluted before the mountain of extreme difficulty, where hypoxia awaits in each attempt.
For the road, Verstappen is again the favourite, in a car that only he can lead on the right path and in which he finds new ways of improvement every time he feels challenged or overwhelmed by someone.
It is not true that the same person always wins, since Emilia Romagna, a month and a half ago, he had lost the pole positions in Monaco, Canada, and Spain. At his team’s home ground, he regains the taste of first place in qualifying.
Sainz fourth, Leclerc sixth
Carlos Sainz was the best of the Ferraris again, caressing until the end the third place in the session and resisting the fate of being swallowed up by the McLarens and the Mercedes. Russell was able to beat him again, but not Hamilton, not Leclerc, not Piastri, demoted to seventh due to track limits.
The mission of being on the podium, seeing Ferrari’s problems in the morning Sprint race with the brakes, seems very difficult, but Carlos is going to try to get back to the wave at the beginning of the season.
Alonso, 15th with an old engine
It is true that Aston Martin was not up to feats this weekend, but at least Fernando moved on to Q2 and he did so while Stroll, his teammate, was eliminated in 17th place. For the Canadian, it is one of his best tracks of the year, but Fernando also learned from Friday and was able to beat him this time, despite having an old engine.
This is at the edge of its useful life, but it was decided to wait until Silverstone to fit a new one and despite this, he took what he didn’t have. He’s not happy, but he knows that there is nothing more to scratch until there is a change of direction in the form of major news.
Q2: Sainz passed second and Alonso eliminated as 15th
Carlos aimed high to one of the first two lines, for the grill, with another great lap in which he only fell to an alien called Verstappen. He scored more than four tenths when that was the time gap from second to last in the second round.
Alonso, for its part, exhausting two new games and one used, was ranked last in the most suitable position (15th), although he was only 0.4 seconds off Carlos’ time. Stroll this time fell as 17th and he will start behind the Asturian, on his favorite circuit of the year and despite not having problems with his engine like the Asturian.
