Austrain GP Qualifying: Max Verstappen Takes Pole For First Hat-Trick

 

Max Verstappen just completed his first pole hat-trick at the Austrian Grand Prix and Lando Norris snapped McLaren's front row drought since 2012 for finishing second ahead of Sergio Perez.

Norris gave the qualifying session a big fight on the last lap of Q3 and Verstappen had to ward him off to maintain dominance to the end of the race. Though the Dutch driver finished quickest in 0.048s ahead of the Briton, he nearly had that slid off him as Norris chased him down for what could have been his career first pole. 

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton will be starting in the final in P4 and Valterri Bottas in P5 as both missed out on making the podium for what the F1 title-holder, Hamilton, blamed on the team's "continue lack of pace." 

Speaking of the race, Verstappen was yet not satisfied with his performance especially on the last lap of Q3 despite completing hat-trick and believed he should have done better than been chased down like Norris did. Expressing his disappointment, he described the last lap as being "pretty bad" as it was not how he intended it to be. 

Charles Leclerc who finished 12th behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, complained about Ferrari having to improve on pace to be more competitive in the final. He explained: "The main improvement we need to find is on the rears and we also have to tune the car better for the tomorrow."