Verstappen takes Austria sprint pole as Ferrari falter

Max Verstappen has taken pole position for the sprint race in Austria, besting Lando Norris to the top spot.

The margin between the duo was less than one-tenth of a second as Norris continued his pursuit of Verstappen at the head of the pecking order.

Oscar Piastri will head row two ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell.

Charles Leclerc failed to set a lap time in the SQ3 session after suffering a car concern in the pit lane, resulting in crossing the line moments after the chequered flag waved.

Carlos Sainz posted Ferrari's best effort in fifth place, ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

The run of disappointing results continued for Sergio Perez who ended the session in seventh.

Alpine enjoyed another strong outing to get both cars inside the top 10, besting Leclerc who failed to clock a lap time.

Aston Martin suffer double SQ2 exit

Medium tyres were strapped to the cars for the second segment, prior to the switch to softs for the top 10 shootout.

Kevin Magnussen narrowly failed to progress into the final stage of qualifying, and is set to line-up in 11th for the sprint race. 

The Haas driver lost lap time in the final two sectors after setting a purple time through the first sector.

Lance Stroll out-qualified team-mate Fernando Alonso despite having a big slide out of the final corner on his fast lap en route to 12th.

With Alonso 13th, Yuki Tsunoda positioned himself as the leading RB in 14th place while Logan Sargeant ended the session in the top 15, ahead of team-mate Alex Albon.

Hamilton avoids early exit as Sargeant progresses

Medium tyres were mandatory once more at the start of the first qualifying outing, and it was an uncomfortable 12-minute session for some.

Hamilton endured a scrappy opening segment but managed to slip through, having a handful of moments behind the wheel during the lap.

Daniel Ricciardo dropped out of the session in 16th while team-mate Tsunoda had a high-speed spin in the final segment, with Nico Hulkenberg also failing to advance.

Valtteri Bottas was 18th, while team-mate Zhou Guanyu was the slowest driver of the session.

Albon failed to make it through to SQ2 and had to settle for 19th, several positions down on team-mate Sargeant.