'Didn't get a chance': Major blow after Oscar Piastri dudded by rival driver
Lando Norris soared to a stunning pole for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday after Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen were robbed of their final qualifying lap by a mishap from Pierre Gasly. Norris delivered the perfect response to his Montreal horror show, which saw him collide with McLaren teammate Piastri and cost himself vital points in the championship race.
The Brit's world championship bid was dealt a major setback a fortnight ago when he ran into the back of Piastri and failed to finish. But he produced a sublime drive on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring, landing his 12th career pole after topping all of the practice sessions.
Norris' margin over second-fastest qualifier Charles Leclerc was a huge 0.521 seconds - the biggest of the year so far at the shortest track on the calendar. Piastri, who leads Norris by 22 points in the championship heading into Sunday's main race, qualified third - 0.583 seconds behind his teammate.
Piastri and Verstappen (seventh fastest) were denied one final chance to improve their times when Alpine driver Gasly spun ahead of them, resulting in a yellow flag that meant drivers behind had to slow down. Piastri was furious at having his final lap runed, saying 'f*** me, man, Jesus Christ' on team radio.
He later said: 'I had (Pierre) Gasly spin at the first corner so I didn't even open my second lap. Lando's been very quick all weekend so it would have been a tough challenge, but we had the pace to be on the front row.
'We can still have a good race from there and we are not here to come home third. I'm not planning on finishing third, that's for sure. Always a shame when you don't even get the chance. Sometimes it's just not your day."
Gasly said of his mishap, which saw him spin into the gravel before ending up back on the track: 'I think I was pushing a lot, and I did a mistake. I felt like I had a bit of time to get in that last corner after my lap in Q2 and, yeah, I went for it.
'Unfortunately, when I turned in, I didn't manage to rotate the car the way I wanted. So I didn't get the apex the way I wanted and went on power, tried to turn the car, and eventually it didn't go the way I wanted. Not happy about it.'
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Norris' first lap in Q3 put him two tenths faster than anyone else in the field, and he then pulled out more than half-a-second with his next lap. "It was a good lap, that's for sure," he said. "I feel like my first lap in Q3 was good but I knew I could get more time and I did exactly that. I did what I planned to do and when I do that and it goes right it is usually very good."
Verstappen (43 points behind Piastri) complained that his Red Bull was "undriveable", and faces the prospect of losing further ground in the championship. "The car is completely undriveable," he said over the radio after finishing nearly a second behind Norris. "It is even worse than before. I don't even know what to say."
He later added: 'The whole of qualifying didn't go well at all. There was no corner where the car felt good, so that is a huge problem in qualifying. It wasn't nice to drive at all. I don't think we're strong enough to challenge the McLarens... They're at another level, but hopefully tomorrow we can at least be competitive with Ferrari or Mercedes.'
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