Qualifying Highlights | 2024 Austrian Grand Prix

Ocon has gone to 7th, so let's see what Hülkenberg can do, and he's gone 9th. The top three wait in the pits. Sainz, Piastri and Verstappen, they're happy, they've done enough. Norris has now done enough, even if the team weren't sure. Yeah, just slow, mate. Magnussen jumps to 5th, and Hamilton, that's on a new tyre, and he should be safe with that, but he's not happy with his performance. But look at Perez, down to 13th now. He's going to be the next big-name driver to start a flying lap, but have to pull something out. Perez under pressure, Albon there, and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso into the drop zone with not a brilliant first sector. It is a personal best, but he's looking for an improvement as well. The driver at risk is the driver we're looking at, Alex Albon, who was out in this stage of sprint qualifying yesterday, trying to take a step forward, comes across the line, and he improves his time, but not his position. And can Stroll improve? No, he goes to 16th position. Only four can knock out Albon now. Yeah, Alonso's on a slightly better lap, and then manages to pop it in there. He manages to knock Alex Albon out along with his teammate. The pressure is on Sergio Perez. He improves to 12th, and Alonso found a lap time to get in there. Perez found a lap time to get in there. But would you look at the gap from 1st to 20th? It's under eight-tenths of a second. Unbelievably close, and in the end, Alonso just pipped Albon. Stroll out as well, along with Bottas, Sargent, and Joe. Ocon posts his best lap time of the session so far, but it leaves him in ninth, and therefore it leaves him at risk, you have to say, with so many pushing on behind. With the track at its grippiest of every stage of the weekend so far, Hamilton goes up to third place. Verstappen trying to lower the bar out front. He's just done the fastest first sector of anyone so far. Loving it around this circuit. What about those in the drop zone at the moment? Hülkenberg gets to ninth. That's a big effort for the German driver. What about his teammate though? Full commitment now for Magnussen to try and jump back up into the top 10. Blend into the throttle, and here we go through the hop of turn 10. That looked pretty quick from K-Mag. Is it enough to break the top 10? No! 12th position. Daniel Ricciardo is close in with Ocon at two-thirds distance. This is one corner to go for Fernando Alonso. Verstappen blitz the field again out front. Incredible lap from him as we're watching who gets through into Q3. Alonso won't be part of that conversation. Across the line for Ricciardo, who's going to just miss out there by 15 thousandths of a second. And now Gasly is the driver trying to book his place there. No! He misses out. Ocon's lap time was good enough. Is he going to run it out to the gravel? And well, that's not the quickest way through there, quite obviously. And that could well explain why that lap time disappeared. Alonso over a second away from the overall pace. He is out in Q2 along with Sunoda, Magnussen, Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo. Let's see the time on the board for the hot favourite for pole position. It's a 1.04.4. Max Verstappen bringing a cheer from the crowd. Can Lando Norris strike back? He can't. He's three-tenths of a second away, but he's ahead of his teammate and he's on the front row with Verstappen once again as it stands, like he was for sprint qualifying yesterday. Charles Leclerc trying to get into the mix and he's ahead of a McLaren. He goes to P3. Here are the two Mercedes about to put their efforts on the board. Fifth place for Lewis Hamilton. And now George Russell, who is 8.2 up in the head-to-head between these two. It was Hamilton who was the lead car on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix. What about the Austrian Grand Prix? One run to go after this one and George Russell manages to find third position. So Verstappen has a fine, fine advantage. It's been fine margins, but it's a huge buffer that he's got as he begins his second flying lap in Q3. He has indeed. We've only got him in that top left. This is exit of sixth entry. A seven keeps it clean and marginally down on his previous best middle sector. Only a 28.7. So when I'm saying marginally down, it's a thousandth of a second slower. Maybe a little hesitant in Turn 10. Let's find out what Verstappen does. He's taken it even further away from the other competitors in the field. What a lap from Max Verstappen. He's got a margin of nearly half a second when the others are trying to post their laps at the end. Hülkenberg goes to eighth place. If he stays there, it's his best start of the year. What about Oskar Piastri trying to join his teammate, trying to exceed his teammate? And he's done so by one thousandth of a second. Signs goes to fourth. Lando Norris will need a reply to get back on the front row here in Austria. It's where he was for sprint qualifying. Not a great first sector. It is an improvement in the middle part of the lap. Can Norris displace the man who beat him to second earlier in the sprint? The answer is yes at the end. He's done it. He's done it when he needed to. He's four tenths of a second away from Max Verstappen, but he's the lead McLaren on the grid. There's an incident for Verstappen on the pit exit. That's the only bad news. Oh, off in the background! And that is over the gravel. Charles Leclerc seeing his chance of improving his time. Full away. And he finds himself restricted to sixth place. Mercedes now. First up, Lewis Hamilton finds a clean route through. And Hamilton, where can he go across the line? Up to fifth ahead of his teammate. Needs a reply from George Russell. Or is it going to be Hamilton the lead Mercedes on the grid once again? Russell's done all the hard work. Up through the line. Russell goes to fourth. He goes ahead of Sainz. He goes ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Oscar Piastri's time is deleted. He drops down to seventh position in the order. Charles Leclerc wasn't just through the turn nine gravel trap. Turn six as well. Yeah, scrappy frustration coming through. And to compound that, launches it into nine. And no hope of controlling that. No one is near. Max Verstappen laps to savour for the man who has taken a fifth consecutive pole position around the Red Bull Ring. And that was a masterclass.