Max Verstappen roars past Lando Norris again in F1 Sprint Qualifying

June 28, 2024

The roar tells the story

After the chequered flag in SQ3, it looked like McLaren had monopolized the front row, as Oscar Piastri produced a brilliant lap in the MCL38 to claim provisional pole position, only for Lando Norris to beat him with a thunderous lap of his own.

However, Max Verstappen was closing in on the track.

The Dutchman was screaming around the Red Bull Ring, pushing the RB20 to the limit, and when he crossed the line on his final push lap in SQ3, he didn’t need to look at the timing board to know the result.

He just needed to listen to the crowd.

The crowd of Red Bull fans began to cheer as Verstappen’s lap time propelled him to the top of the timesheets, securing another pole position for one of the sport’s best drivers. The sea of orange in the crowd cheered and orange flares swept through the crowd.

Their heroes have done it again.

“Everything is going really well, a good start to the weekend, I’m happy today,” Verstappen told Davide Valsecchi trackside.

Asked about the threat posed by Norris, Verstappen was as calm and collected as ever.

“We’ll see tomorrow,” Verstappen began. “I’m not too stressed, I’m going to enjoy the all-around and I’ll try again tomorrow.”

And if Verstappen’s performance today is any indication, he might have another fun day tomorrow.

Here are the winners and losers of the Austrian Grand Prix F1 sprint qualifying, as well as the full results.

Winner: Logan Sargent

Logan Sargent ended up being eliminated from SQ2 and will start the F1 sprint race from 15th place. Furthermore, a lap that should have qualified him for SQ3 was deleted for exceeding track limits. “I didn’t run T1 and T3 correctly,” Sargent admitted after SQ2.

But it was still a win for the American driver, who faces a very uncertain future in the sport.

Sargent beat teammate Alexander Albon to qualify for Qualifying 2, marking the first time in his F1 career that a Williams driver had qualified ahead of Albon and earning a personal record.

While this may not be enough to secure Sargent a place at Williams, given speculation that options such as Carlos Sainz Jr. could join the team from 2025, it could be a sign that Sargent continues to improve his race skills. If Williams does indeed go in a different direction in 2025 as expected, performances like this could see Sargent emerge as another option.

Loser: Daniel Ricciardo

However, this is just F1 sprint qualifying and there are no big points yet to be won this weekend, so this is not how Daniel Ricciardo wants to start his week.

The Austrian Grand Prix kicked off with rumors circulating about Ricciardo’s future in F1. Dr Helmut Marko outlined possible instructions from above to bring Liam Lawson into the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team seat, and well-known F1 journalist Joe Saward speculated that such a move could happen this summer. As a result, Ricciardo himself addressed his uncertain future at Thursday’s media day, admitting that he needs to improve his performance to cement his place at VCARB.

Being eliminated in SQ1 and seeing Yuki Tsunoda advance to SQ2 was not the start to the weekend Ricciardo had hoped for.

There is still plenty of track time remaining this weekend, with the big points to come in Saturday’s Grand Prix qualifying, but Ricciardo needs to work harder to stay up the order – something the driver himself acknowledged on Thursday.

Winner: Alpine

Progress continues at Alpine.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly again qualified for the final segment of qualifying, with both drivers progressing to SQ3 on Friday. Although both Alpine drivers finished at the back of their groups, Ocon will start the F1 sprint race in eighth place and Gasly in ninth, another sign that the team is heading in the right direction.

Sure, you can point to the fact that the only driver they beat in SQ3 was Charles Leclerc, who was unable to set a time after stalling in the pit lane just before the end of the session, but you can also point out how close Ocon was to Sergio Pérez in terms of ability: the Red Bull driver set a 1:06.008 in SQ3 to Ocon’s 1:06.101.

That’s not a huge difference at all.

Alpine have been talking about their progress for weeks since scoring their first points of the season at the Miami Grand Prix, but their progress has truly taken shape in recent results, with double points over the past two weekends, and given Ocon and Gasly’s starting positions tomorrow, they have a chance to keep that streak going.

That’s something that was unimaginable when the season began, especially considering the start of the 2024 campaign.

Loser: Charles Leclerc

Generally speaking, it is preferable to do your best push lap at the end of a session because that will allow the track to “rubber in” as much as possible, leading to the best time possible.

This created a funny situation as the final ten drivers waited in their garages as Qualifying 3 began. As the clock ticked down, some drivers, such as George Russell, began to get impatient, and before the session ended, Russell told his team, “We need to hurry up.”

Eventually the ten drivers slowly emerged from their garages, but unfortunately for Charles Leclerc, his SF-24 suffered an anti-stall whilst driving through the pit lane. Leclerc was able to get the car moving again, but was unable to start a push lap before the chequered flag was waved and ultimately was unable to record a time.

This means he will start from 10th place in F1 sprint races.

Leclerc can potentially make up some places on the grid in the F1 sprint race itself and potentially get a result on Saturday, but he will initially find himself fighting at the back of the points table and not for the front row as he would have liked.

Winner: McLaren

After the Monaco Grand Prix, it looked like the battle for the lead in the constructors’ championship would be a one-on-one battle between Red Bull and Ferrari.

Since then, McLaren has crashed the party.

And then some.

Friday’s F1 sprint qualifying session once again showed that McLaren has real pace this season and for a moment it looked like the front row would be all orange when tomorrow’s F1 sprint race got underway, with Lando Norris taking provisional pole position with Oscar Piastri right next to him.

Max Verstappen answered the challenge, as he has done so many times before, and rocketed to the top of the timesheets, but when the race gets started tomorrow, both McLarens will be at the front again with a chance to take home vital points in the three-way battle.

Furthermore, given Ferrari’s position on the grid for tomorrow’s sprint race, McLaren has the chance to move even closer to the Scuderia in the standings.

Looking at the bigger picture a bit, the pace we saw in the MCL38 today suggests that Norris is ready to challenge Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix. That story is yet to be told, and we may see more twists and turns in tomorrow’s qualifying session. But McLaren are definitely in the mix given their recent form, and today’s F1 sprint qualifying session is the latest evidence of that fact.

Loser: Sauber

It continues to be a tough time for Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

Both drivers were eliminated in the first qualifying session on Friday, with Bottas finishing in 18th place and Zhou in last place, 20th.

Sauber is still aiming to score its first points of the 2024 F1 season, but given its starting position in Saturday’s F1 sprint race, it’s clear that its first result won’t come in that race.

More worryingly, Zhou finished 14th and Bottas 15th in Qualifying 1 and the only practice session on Friday, but neither driver had the pace to make it into Qualifying 2, and at this rate they may struggle in qualifying for the main Grand Prix.