Friday's Austrian Grand Prix continued with sprint qualifying, and not without some excitement.
After the first laps of the SQ1, Max Verstappen was in the lead on the mandatory medium compounds, with George Russell just a hair behind. Carlos Sainz followed them, and the position did not change in this stage. Several surprising names were among the eliminated drivers, with Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hülkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Alexander Albon and Guanyu Zhou unable to continue the sprint qualifying battles.
The SQ2 and another medium stage came, which was the same as the first stage until the end. Verstappen led, Russell was close behind him, the only difference was that Oscar Piastri managed to wedge himself in front of the two Ferraris. The list of those eliminated was enriched by Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Logan Sargeant.
There was nothing to hide in SQ3, everyone showed their real pace, and based on this, Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen are still the fastest on one lap. But behind them, Lando Norris and McLaren are so far behind that we certainly wouldn't sleep well before Saturday if we were in the Dutchman's place...
