Lando Norris took a dominant pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix as late yellow flag drama left championship leader Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen frustrated.
Norris has topped every session since second practice and continued his superb form into qualifying, beating Charles Leclerc to pole by over half a second – the biggest pole margin of the 2025 F1 season so far.
Piastri, who is 22 points ahead of Norris in the Drivers’ Championship, and Verstappen were unable to complete their last Q3 runs due to yellow flags caused by a Pierre Gasly spin, but both drivers would have struggled to beat the flying Norris.
Lewis Hamilton recorded his best qualifying of the year in fourth, ahead of George Russell and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.
Verstappen, who is 43 points behind Piastri in the standings, had to settle for seventh but was on course to be on the front row until he was forced to abort his lap before the penultimate corner for the spinning Gasly.
Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto reached Q3 for the first time and qualified eighth, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in ninth and Gasly in 10th.
Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda suffered his third consecutive Q1 elimination and will start Sunday’s race in Spielberg from 18th when the lights go out at 2pm on Sunday, live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event.
‘Outstanding’ Norris reignites title bid
After running into the back of his team-mate last time out in Canada, Norris hit the ground running straight away in Austria.
Having sat out first practice for Irish teenager Alex Dunne, who grabbed the attention of the paddock with an impressive performance, Norris was quickest in second practice and final practice.
He comfortably topped Q1 before Piastri was only one tenth slower in Q2 and appeared to have time in hand, setting up a big battle for pole.
However, Norris found another gear with a 1:04.268 on his first run to take provisional pole by 0.228s from Leclerc, then went even quicker with a blistering 1:03.971 with his last effort.
“My Q3 run one was good but I knew there were a few places where, if I just got it right, I could still get quite a bit more time and I did exactly that,” said Norris.
“I did what I planned to do and when I plan to do something and it goes right, it normally goes very, very well. So very happy. A good day and it has been a good weekend for me so far, so hopefully we can keep it up.
“It’s a long season and I still savour this moment, especially as some of my tougher moments have been in qualy. So to put in the lap like today, to put in the performance like I had, was pleasing for myself. I’m excited. I want to prove to to myself over and over again and hopefully this is the beginning of it.”
Piastri was nearly three tenths down after the first run but Gasly spun in front of him just as both drivers were about to start their flying laps.
DRS was briefly disabled by the stewards and Piastri could not get a proper run out of the last corner to start his lap, so he did not have the opportunity to challenge his team-mate.
“Lando has been very quick all weekend and it would have been a tough challenge, but I think we easily had enough pace in the car this weekend to be on the front row,” said Piastri.
“So always a shame when you don’t even get the chance but we can still have a good race from there. It’s sometimes just not your day.”
Verstappen was on course to be second or third had he been able to complete his lap, so faces an uphill battle to win for a record-extending sixth time at the Red Bull Ring from seventh.
The reigning world champion was unhappy with the balance of his car but had strong race pace in final practice and will look to get ahead of the Mercedes and Ferraris.
Leclerc took advantage of the yellow flag drama with second and Hamilton’s best Saturday qualifying of 2025 in fourth will give Ferrari encouragement, particularly as they brought a new floor to Austria.