Africa-Press – South-Africa. Max Verstappen made little effort of qualifying as he secured another pole position in 2023, this time around the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.
The Red Bull driver made securing pole look effortless, elevating him above the rest of the grid. However, with qualifying drawing to a close, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc came to within 0.048 seconds of the pole sitter’s 1:04.391.
Despite it looking like a walk in the park for Verstappen, the race weekend is different because of Sprint Saturday.
“We know that this is a different weekend with the whole format, but very happy. At least the car is quick, and that’s the most important,” Verstappen said.
Track limits
Many drivers had their lap times deleted for exceeding track limits throughout qualifying. Verstappen was among those, admitting that the session was made more challenging because of it.
“It was very difficult because of all the track limits,” he said. “With these speeds, it’s so hard to judge the track limits. I think we still did a good enough lap. Very happy being on pole.”
For Ferrari, the Austrian GP qualifying was a turn in fortune, with Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz crossing the line in second and third, respectively.
“It feels good to have a clean qualifying again. Very close to Max, not enough,” Leclerc said.
“Overall, I don’t think we expected to be this close to the Red Bull, so it’s good. It was already feeling quite okay in practice. Everybody is so close. Very tricky, but happy. Race pace looked quite good in Montreal, but again consistency is where we need to focus, but Red Bull, for now, is quicker.”
READ: Max Verstappen claims sixth pole position of season at Austrian Grand Prix
Sainz, who’s ahead of Leclerc in the championship race, looked strong, but Verstappen’s pace was just too strong. Despite it, he is upbeat about his team’s chances come the race.
“(Qualifying) was good,” he said. “I think we had a strong quali as a team.
“Closer to Max than expected, so overall, we are quite happy. I think we still have a lot of weekend ahead of us. We put ourselves in a good position to try and get a podium on Sunday. Obviously, we are in parc ferme, so it’s not like we can improve the car a lot. But we will see if we can pick up a tenth or two.”
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