2023-07-01 05:10:35
The Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), prominent leader of the championship, will start first on Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix, the ninth Formula One World Cup, which takes place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg (Styria), where the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start third and seventh, respectively.
Verstappen, 25, achieved his twenty-sixth “pole” in F1 – the sixth of the year – by dominating yesterday’s qualifying, in which he covered, with a soft compound tire, the 4,318 meters of the Styrian track in one minute , four seconds and 391 thousandths, only 48 less than the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and with 190 over Sainz. The talented driver from Madrid will start from the second row tomorrow, alongside his former teammate, the Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren), who will start fourth.
That will be after the sprint race is held today -a third of the distance from Sunday, scheduled for 71 laps to complete a route of 306 and a half kilometers-, hours after a new, reduced qualifying, which will order the grid of this reduced race.
There was disappointment among the Alonsista parish, who dreams of seeing the Oviedo driver win the 33rd victory of his record in this championship. The Asturian double world champion -third in the World Cup, with 117 points, 78 less than “Mad Max”- will start seventh tomorrow in Spielberg, from the fourth row; from which the German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) will also start, who finished eighth in qualifying.
From the third row will be the seven-time English world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Canadian Lance Stroll, Alonso’s teammate at Aston Martin, who finished sixth yesterday.
Analyzing qualifying, Alonso noted: “We suffered a one-lap cancellation in Q2 which forced us to put an extra set of tires in order to get through to Q3 and that meant we only had one chance on new tires in that final stretch, which was not ideal. In any case, sixth and seventh are very solid starting positions for us.” Looking ahead to what is to come, the Spaniard points out: “I think what remains will be interesting and exciting, since there is a chance of rain tomorrow and perhaps dry conditions on Sunday. But the car feels good so I am optimistic about ahead of the rest of the weekend”.
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