George Russell claimed pole at the Austrian Grand Prix after a late surge in qualifying, snatching the top spot from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the final lap. The drama revolved around a crash by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the approach to Turn Nine, which triggered yellow flags as Russell crossed the scene. Russell’s Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli, who was just behind him on track, also passed the incident but failed to improve and will start fourth. McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were sixth and seventh, with Verstappen holding on to fifth despite his crash.
Russell asserted that he had slowed enough for the yellow flags and noted there was only a single yellow on trackside boards, even though the official race control sheet listed double waved yellows near Turn Nine. An FIA spokesperson explained that the signal was upgraded from a single yellow to double yellows after Antonelli and Antonelli had already passed. “I had a big lift,” Russell said. “I went into the corner 0.5 seconds up and came out 0.25 seconds up. It was great to get that lap.” He added that Toto Wolff had told him the yellow flag was fine and that there was a big 100-meter lift before the corner.
Antonelli, who was directly behind Verstappen, admitted he thought it was a double yellow and aborted his final run, missing out on the front row. “I shouldn’t have done that. It would have been very close with George. He would have been a little ahead but it would have been front row,” he said.
The late session shock came after Verstappen’s high-speed crash, which sent him spinning into the gravel and into the barriers. Ferrari and McLaren had completed their runs before Verstappen’s incident, but Mercedes’ drivers were following behind him. Before the final lap, Leclerc had looked the strongest, and he was just 0.059 seconds faster than Hamilton, who had led the weekend pace but made a mistake on his first Q3 run, locking a brake at Turn Three and abandoning that lap. This left Hamilton on a riskier but potentially higher-reward final attempt.
As the drama unfolded, Verstappen’s first attempt was the third fastest, behind Antonelli and Russell, keeping him in a strong position for a late surge. In the end, Russell’s late improvement delivered pole by a slim margin, with Leclerc and Hamilton close behind.