Max Verstappen was nearly half a second clear of his teammate Sergio Perez in another crushing defeat for his teammate during the Sprint Shootout in Austria. The Red Bull driver's best lap of a 1:04.440 was 0.493s clear of Perez and could have been quicker without a mistake at Turn 3 which cost him an estimated tenth of a second. During the tricky changing conditions Verstappen was improving throughout his lap, putting in his best effort in the dying moments of the session. "The track was drying up so lap after lap you're improving, we had to be on the track at the right time," Verstappen told media. "Today you don't have a lot of laps in every segment of qualifying, but I think we did well, the car was in a good window and had good balance." When asked about the gap to his teammate, Verstappen put it down to the conditions: "I don't know why, it's a bit different today but also the track is still not fully dry."
Verstappen cautious about the race
While Red Bull has continued to show its superior pace, Verstappen is cautious about how far ahead they will be at the team's home circuit during the Sprint. He added: "[The] car is great, that's the most important thing today. Let's see over over a stint how we will perform. "I think even in the race, it will be for all the drivers quite hard to manage around here."
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