After a dominant performance in qualifying by Max Verstappen, former F1 driver Paul di Resta believes that it may only be weather or reliability that could stop Red Bull in the Austrian Grand Prix. The Dutchman secured pole position for the race with a time of 1:03.720. Whilst second-placed Lando Norris was impressively close with a 1:03.768, his McLaren is unlikely to have the pace to match Verstappen during the Grand Prix. As for Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was the closest challenger in fourth, but still had quite a gap to Verstappen with his time of 1:04.014. So far the signs suggest that a repeat of his win at last weekend's Styrian Grand Prix could be on the cards for Verstappen, and di Resta admits it is hard to see what can stand in Red Bull's way. "I'm not really sure what can stop them," di Resta told Sky Sports F1. "Of course the weather can play a big part [and] reliability. "But they're in such a good place at the moment, they've got a good buffer. I think to be honest they're just not taking it for granted, get on, do your race, keep it clean and hope that the outcome's right, and I think that's the way they've gone about their business at the moment. "I think that's what's so professional about how they're nailing it." Di Resta isn't the only one to anticipate a strong performance by Red Bull. Hamilton also commented after qualifying on how the indications so far suggest another Verstappen victory and that a win for Mercedes is out of the question. "I would say so yeah, in terms of pure pace it's definitely out of the question," the seven-times World Champion said. "Those guys firstly, I've got two cars to get by in front, and they've [Red Bull] got three tenths on us. I think they've improved that car again this weekend so I would say that that's an easy cruise win for Max. "I think for us is to try and see if we can get ahead of, at least [Sergio] Perez, and try to limit the damage this weekend."
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