Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen maintained his momentum over rival Lewis Hamilton by taking pole position for the Styrian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Verstappen became the first driver this weekend to complete a lap below one minute, four seconds as he timed 1:03.841 in his Red Bull in Q3 to beat Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas by .194.
With Bottas getting a three-place grid penalty from a pitlane incident in Friday's practice, Verstappen will share the front row with Hamilton. The defending champion trailed his Mercedes teammate by .032 in third.
McLaren's Lando Norris and Red Bull's Sergio Perez will start from row two. Australia's Daniel Ricciardo finished way below his McLaren teammate – he missed Q3 and will start from 13th, despite running second only to Verstappen in second practice the day prior.
"We just lost a lot of speed overnight," Ricciardo told Sky Sports. "It's not even quali that we were slow, it was already this morning. We put the car on track and we were quite a bit off. It's another session where we are a little bit scratching our heads.
"It was a long way off; at times, it was a second or something. It's a bit strange. Obviously yesterday was strong and encouraging so I wouldn't say there is many answers at the moment why we struggled so much today but we'll figure it out and look forward to tomorrow now. Definitely didn't expect to be here after yesterday."
"It's been a very good weekend," Verstappen said. "Again in qualifying the car was really good to drive. I am super happy to be on pole here at home."
The Dutch driver called his fastest lap "not too bad."
"It's definitely a small track but it's really hard to get a good lap out of it," he said. "I think that first lap in Q3 was not too bad, it's never perfect, but it's good enough."
The lap earned Verstappen his second straight pole and third of the season, compared to Hamilton's two. Both drivers have won three races this season.
At the French GP last week, Verstappen completed a hat trick of pole, fastest lap, and victory when he overtook Hamilton in the penultimate lap.
"It's never easy but that's good for racing," Verstappen said. "I am sure again tomorrow it will be very tight, so hopefully again it will be as interesting as in France."
Red Bull has won the last three races, while Hamilton is looking for a first triumph since winning the Spanish GP seven weeks ago.
Verstappen drew praise from Hamilton.
"Firstly, well done to Max, he has been so fast this weekend," said Hamilton, who is chasing a record eighth F1 title this season.
However, Red Bull's dominance left him in doubt about his chances in the race.
"They generally had a quarter of a second on us all weekend. It will be interesting to see whether we can manage it. I don't think we have the raw pace to overtake them, that's for sure," Hamilton said.
"We have been giving it absolutely everything. It wasn't the greatest of sessions but nonetheless we are still on the front row. I did everything I could and we go into the race tomorrow for a fight."
Charles Leclerc had the seventh-fastest time after both Ferraris finished outside the top 10 in practice Friday. Leclerc earned pole position in two of the last three GPs.
Ricciardo finished 13th and went out in Q2, a day after he was runner-up to Verstappen in the second practice.
The Australian continues to be shown-up by younger McLaren teammate Norris, who was 10 places clear at the Red Bull Ring.
"I don't know. Today is what happened, a bit of a mystery, actually. We were obviously quick yesterday, and I know it's only Friday practice, and I didn't expect to be fighting for pole position today," Ricciardo said.
"But obviously we were pretty comfortable with everything. We put the car on track today and we are one second slower, pretty much. Then qualifying I think was a product also of this morning, we were just off the pace.
"Why? Not sure. But it was definitely one of those days, a bit of a frustrating one. So we'll obviously try to understand why and how. It's not like there was a lot of time here or there, it was just a little bit of lap time everywhere, and you try and improve a bit.
"But I just felt like everything I did, I was not really able to gain anything else out of the car.
"We fine-tuned a little bit [from practice]. But nothing crazy, nothing which should explain being so far off today. And you obviously change the car to try to be quicker. So we definitely didn't expect this today."
Earlier Saturday, Hamilton timed the fastest lap in the third and final practice as he was just over two-tenths of a second faster than Verstappen.
Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by 12 points in the season standings, was fastest in both practices Friday.
Hamilton also timed the quickest lap in Friday's second practice but went too wide on a turn, making him one of many drivers who had lap times deleted for exceeding the track limit.
A day after getting a three-place grid penalty for spinning while leaving the Mercedes box, Bottas had another pitlane scare as he narrowly avoided Pierre Gasly, who overlooked the Finnish driver when leaving the AlphaTauri box.
With a track record of just under 1 minute, 3 seconds, the Red Bull Ring has the quickest lap times of the F1 season.
However, it is only the fifth-shortest track, behind Monaco, Netherlands, Mexico, and Brazil. It has three long straights and features the fewest corners — 10, and three of them are taken at full throttle.
It leaves drivers few opportunities to find time, usually making for a tight qualifying.
F1 STYRIAN GRAND PRIX STARTING GRID
1. Max Verstappen, Netherlands, Red Bull Racing, 1 minute, 03.841 seconds.
2. Valtteri Bottas, Finland, Mercedes, 1:04.035.
3. Lewis Hamilton, Great Britain, Mercedes, 1:04.067.
4. Lando Norris, Great Britain, McLaren, 1:04.120.
5. Sergio Perez, Mexico, Red Bull Racing, 1:04.168.
6. Pierre Gasly, France, Alphatauri, 1:04.236.
7. Charles Leclerc, Monaco, Ferrari, 1:04.472.
8. Yuki Tsunoda, Japan, Alphatauri, 1:04.514.
9. Fernando Alonso, Spain, Alpine, 1:04.574.
10. Lance Stroll, Canada, Aston Martin, 1:04.708.
Eliminated after second session
11. George Russell, Great Britain, Williams, 1:04.671.
12. Carlos Sainz Jr, Spain, Ferrari, 1:04.800.
13. Daniel Ricciardo, Australia, McLaren, 1:04.808.
14. Sebastian Vettel, Germany, Aston Martin, 1:04.875.
15. Antonio Giovinazzi, Italy, Alfa Romeo Racing, 1:04.913.
Eliminated after first session
16. Nicholas Latifi, Canada, Williams, 1:05.175.
17. Esteban Ocon, France, Alpine, 1:05.217.
18. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, Alfa Romeo Racing, 1:05.429.
19. Mick Schumacher, Germany, Haas F1 Team, 1:06.041.
20. Nikita Mazepin, Russia, Haas F1 Team, 1:06.192.
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