Verstappen aiming to exploit McLaren limitation

Max Verstappen has stated his chance of taking victory at the Austrian Grand Prix has been boosted by Oscar Piastri's deleted lap time from qualifying.

The Australian driver set the third fastest lap at the end of Q3 but the time was subsequently deleted after he breached track limits, dropping him down to seventh.

Piastri's team-mate Lando Norris will start on the front row alongside pole-sitter Verstappen, as was the case during Saturday's sprint race when both McLarens attacked the three-time world champion.

However, with several cars separating Piastri from the leading duo, Verstappen senses an enhanced opportunity. 

"It helps now there's only one McLaren next to me,” Verstappen told Sky F1.

"For sure, they will try to do it again. They know they are quite good on tyres anyway so I still expect them to be there in the race.

"Of course, we nailed the lap in qualifying but that's not a guarantee the race is going to be the same.

"I just hope I can find that same balance with the car because that will help a lot on the tyres as well."

Verstappen reveals Red Bull Ring strength

Verstappen convincingly took pole position on Saturday, beating Norris by over four-tenths of a second.

The Dutchman is gunning for his sixth F1 victory around the Red Bull Ring.

"It's just a combination of things,” he replied when asked what makes him so strong around the circuit. 

“I like to drive the track. That's normally not an excuse whether you do well or not.

"The car has been good in the high-speed corners from the start.

"But I was not particularly happy in the sprint race with how the car was behaving so we made some little changes, and sometimes these little changes can give a little bit of a better balance from the high speed through to low speed, and you get a bit more lap time out of it.”