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Max Verstappen in the box
Photo:
JURE MAKOVEC v AFP
Championship leader Max Verstappen won qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
This means that the Dutchman, who will be competing in his home town of Zansvoort at the beginning of September, will be first in the sprint race on Saturday at his second home race – his Red Bull racing team is based in Austria.
Verstappen relegated his World Cup rival Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) to second place.
Verstappen has already won the race in Spielberg three times.
Mick Schumacher confirmed his good form, the German had scored his first World Championship points in the last race at Silverstone.
Schumacher reached the final part of qualifying and will start the first of two races in Spielberg in eighth place.
A total of three sprint races will take place in Formula 1 this season.
In Imola, Verstappen had won the sprint and then the main race.
The eight best-placed drivers in the sprint take additional World Championship points with them (winner: eight points, eighth: one point), in Brazil the third edition will take place at the end of the season.
The winner of the sprint race on Saturday will also start the main race on Sunday from first place on the grid.
Two Mercedes accidents
A few minutes before the end of qualifying, Lewis Hamilton lost his car and ended up in the barriers.
The seven-time world champion, who was doing well and had hoped for the second row of the grid, remained uninjured and will be tenth in the sprint race on Saturday.
"I'm so sorry guys," Hamilton radioed into the pits.
Hamilton's team-mate George Russell also had an accident shortly after the ten-minute break, and the Mercedes mechanics will have a lot to do with the repairs to both cars.
Russell was also uninjured, but he is facing a penalty because he then ran across the track back into the pits without permission.
In the first part of qualifying, Sebastian Vettel, like his teammate Lance Stroll, had to give up.
The two Aston Martin drivers did not get along with the track, and Vettel was also canceled a lap for exceeding the track limits.
"We were just too slow," said Vettel on Sky.
Zhou Guanyu also retired in the first phase, the Chinese was able to compete at Silverstone a few days ago despite his serious accident.
kra/dpa