Verstappen cruises to pole position at Austrian GP

Max Verstappen followed up his sprint win earlier in the day with a dominant qualifying run to secure pole position for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday.

This is Verstappen's fifth consecutive pole at Red Bull Ring since 2021, when he claimed P1 in both races at the circuit during that season.

Verstappen finished qualifying 0.404 seconds ahead of the field. McLaren's Lando Norris earned P2, while Mercedes' George Russell finished third.

"The whole session went really well. The car was in a better window, and I could push a bit more, and it was very enjoyable. Every lap I did was feeling good," Verstappen said, according to BBC Sport's Andrew Benson. "It's been a while since we were on pole and a while since I felt like this in the car, and it's great. The team has been working hard to make the car more competitive, and it's a good statement."

Oscar Piastri originally finished in P3 but was bumped back to seventh after his final lap was deleted for track limits. Piastri was adamant he did nothing wrong, but McLaren's protest of the result was deemed inadmissible by the stewards, according to journalist Chris Medland.

"It is embarrassing - we do all this work on track limits, put gravel in places, and I didn't even go off the track, I stayed on the track," Piastri said before McLaren lodged its protest, according to Jake Nichol of RacingNews365.com. "It was probably my best Turn 6, and it gets deleted.

"I don't know why they've spent hundreds of thousands or millions trying to change the last two corners when there are other corners you can go off at, but anyway, everyone else stayed on the track, and I didn't."

Fernando Alonso's difficult 2024 season continued as he was eliminated in Q2 en route to a P15 start. The Aston Martin driver has now missed Q3 in five of the last six races.

The bottom five also featured an intense battle that ended up as the closest Q1 in Formula 1 history.