Verstappen secures pole for Austrian GP thanks to Ferrari in-fighting with Lewis Hamilton in eighth after sprint race
MAX VERSTAPPEN won Saturday's sprint race to extend his championship lead and secure pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Dutch world champ Verstappen converted his pole but was helped by Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz scrapping for second behind him.
Sainz, who moved ahead of Leclerc at the opening bend, nibbled at Verstappen's Red Bull gearbox on the run down to Turn 3 but could not make a move stick.
And from there the world champion cruised off into the sunset.
Lewis Hamilton was involved in a crash in qualifying yesterday that meant he started ninth on the grid.
A dramatic start saw him caught in a tangle with Pierre Gasly early on, with the AlphaTauri driver sent spinning after making contact with Hamilton.
Hamilton's front-right tyre made contact with Gasly's left-rear wheel, sending the French driver briefly up in the air and into a spin.
Hamilton was able to continue but dropped two places. He fought his way past Albon on the fourth lap and then overtook Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas on lap eight.
The Brit recovered well and piled the pressure on the Haas' of Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen for almost the entirety of the 23-lap sprint.
The Haas duo did a good job of frustrating Hamilton, with Schumacher benefitting from DRS off Magnussen in front of him to stay ahead of Hamilton.
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Finally with two laps to go the pressure paid off, and Hamilton snuck past Schumacher to take eighth and the final points position after initially dropping down to 11th.
There was plenty of drama ahead of tomorrow's race, with Fernando Alonso failing to start after his Alpine team left the tyre covers on his car ahead of the formation lap.
Zhou Guanyu was also forced to start from the pitlane after encountering a problem on the formation lap.
Verstappen though never looked in danger of giving up first after getting away from the Ferrari's well and scooped eight points, as well as securing first on the grid tomorrow.
Around 60,000 have travelled from the Netherlands to Austria to turn this weekend's event into a home race for Verstappen and he did not disappoint.
Leclerc came home second ahead of Sainz, with Hamilton's Mercedes teammate George Russell fourth.
After dropping behind Sainz at the opening bend, Leclerc was back past on the same lap.
Sainz launched a handful of attacks on his team-mate to provide a number of hairy moments for the Ferrari pit wall.
But Leclerc kept Sainz at bay to finish second and join Verstappen on the front row for tomorrow's race.
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Sergio Perez (Red Bull) had a storming sprint to come from 13th to fifth, ahead of Esteban Ocon (Alpine) in sixth and Magnussen in seventh.
Perez was thrown down the grid for exceeding track limits and is now 38 points being championship leader Verstappen ahead of tomorrow's Grand Prix, with Leclerc 44 points back.