2024 F1 Round 11, Austrian GP qualifying: Verstappen takes his 40th career pole in 1m04.314s, Piastri drops to seventh after lap deletion, Tsunoda 14th

Qualifying for Round 11 of the 2024 Formula 1 season, the Austrian Grand Prix, took place at the Red Bull Ring on the evening of 29 June China time (UTC+8). Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured the 40th pole position of his career with a 1m04.314s lap, 0.404s ahead of second-placed Lando Norris. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda finished 14th.

Compared with his slender 0.093s advantage in Sprint Qualifying 24 hours earlier, Verstappen increased the margin more than fourfold. After winning the Sprint, Red Bull made detailed adjustments to the car. The Dutchman took provisional pole on his first flying lap in Q3, then improved his best time on his final lap. In Q2, his first flying lap after fitting new soft tyres had already put him more than half a second clear of the field, underlining his dominance. This was the hottest part of the weekend, with an air temperature of 32°C and a track temperature of 47°C.

McLaren’s Norris held on to second, but the contest for third took a twist. Piastri briefly set a time good enough for provisional third on his final lap, only to have it deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 6, dropping him to seventh and promoting Mercedes’ Russell into the top three. Sainz was fourth, just 0.011s behind Russell. Hamilton, who qualified behind him, had a small pit lane drama when a jack fell away as he headed out. Leclerc went into the gravel through the final two corners on his last flying lap and had to settle for sixth. Perez held off Hulkenberg for eighth; the Haas driver faced a post-session investigation after moving ahead of Perez in the pit lane queue. Ocon was 10th.

Both RB drivers fought hard. The Q1 spread was remarkably small: only 0.798s separated fastest man Sainz from last-placed Zhou Guanyu. Tsunoda briefly broke into the top 10 during his second timed run, but his 1m05.725s lap was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 6. He had to use a third set of new soft tyres to scrape through in eighth. Ricciardo was only 0.006s behind in ninth, putting both RB cars into Q2. Perez, meanwhile, failed to improve his personal best in the first two sectors and narrowly avoided Q1 elimination in 12th.

In Q2, RB’s commitment of five sets of new soft tyres ultimately came to nothing. After their first flying laps, Ricciardo was provisionally 10th and Tsunoda 12th, with the latter only 0.078s away from the cut-off. Ricciardo improved his personal best on his second flying lap but missed Q3 by just 0.015s in 11th. Tsunoda abandoned his final timed lap and ended qualifying in 14th. Magnussen was 12th, Gasly 13th and Alonso 15th after falling well behind in Q2. Marshals cleared gravel from the track before Q3 began.

Pole-sitter Verstappen and second-placed starter Norris were set to face each other again in the 71-lap race, scheduled to begin at 21:00 China time (UTC+8) on 30 June.