Lando Norris storms to Austrian F1 GP pole as angry Verstappen slumps to seventh

Lando Norris enjoyed the stirring satisfaction of proving he still has skin in the game in the most emphatic fashion, taking pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix by more than half a second. However, his show of reinvigorated strength could not have sat in starker contrast than with the frustration and disappointment of Max Verstappen, whose seventh place in what he called an “undriveable” car will only have fuelled speculation about the defending world champion leaving his Red Bull team.

Indeed, the issue was addressed by the Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, who suggested after qualifying that the conjecture and attention was proving tiresome to the Dutchman. “It’s a lot of noise, I think Max gets quite annoyed by it,” he said. “We’re very clear with the contract that we have with Max until 2028. Anything is entirely speculative that is being said. We tend not to pay too much attention to it.”

However, for Norris this was the perfect comeback after his huge disappointment at having to retire when he crashed into his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri at the last round in Canada. Moreover the British driver did it with no little style and conviction. His margin of 0.521sec over the second-placed Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was an absolute chasm over the short lap at the Red Bull Ring, with Piastri in third, albeit with the Australian’s final quick lap stymied by a late yellow flag.

McLaren’s Lando Norris on his way to pole position, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Photograph: Dénes Erdős/AP

Yet it seems unlikely Piastri would have matched Norris even then, so in control was the 25-year-old, with a performance he badly needed after his title hopes took a battering when he made the misjudged move against Piastri in Montreal, dropping him to 22 points behind the Australian.

Norris was understandably pleased with what he believed was his best single-lap performance of the season. “It was easily my best qualifying of the year from a delivery point of view, from every single lap I did,” he said. “On delivery, consistency and of course putting it in when it counts in Q3, was easily the best lap I’ve done for this whole season, probably even better than Monaco.”

This weekend Norris had talked up the notion that his error in Canada had ultimately resulted in a positive outcome, that he and the team emerged stronger now the seemingly unavoidable clash with Piastri had finally happened. This is credible but it is still inescapable that misjudgments like that of Canada could cost him the title and, for all the psychological compartmentalising and rationalisations, it must weigh heavy.

He acknowledged he could not afford to continue to make mistakes. In Austria there were none, with a series of laps that were all but untouchable.

The McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, acknowledged that the crash would have left Norris’s confidence bruised and that the team would rally round him. They have been seeking to find a way to adjust the car to suit him and their first major upgrades of the season applied this weekend – to the front and rear aero and, crucially for Norris, the front suspension, to improve the feel he has for the front of the car – look to have paid off.

“It was the most confident I’ve been and comfortable I’ve been in terms of getting lap time out of the car and understanding that,” Norris said. “It showed today that when I have those feelings, well, I can have a day like today. It shows that the feelings I’ve been requiring, the feelings that I’ve not been getting as easily, when they are more of my way and more where I want them to be, I can put in better performances and have days like today.”

It remains early days and consistency is key, as Norris himself emphasised, but if he genuinely has the McLaren where he wants it, as appears to be the case in Spielberg, it could become an electrifying title fight with Piastri.

It is a fight Verstappen increasingly appears to be left observing from the sidelines. Unhappy and clearly frustrated, he described his car as so lacking in grip in every type of corner that it was “completely undriveable”.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen struggled during qualifying. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/Reuters

The Dutchman’s dissatisfaction was increased because Red Bull had brought what is likely to be their last major upgrade of the season to the race. It was hoped a revision to the floor of the car would help address the balance issues that have plagued it all year but which prompted Verstappen to declare: “It’s even worse than before. I don’t even know what to say.”

His seventh place was unlucky to an extent, as like Piastri he was forced to back off because of the late yellow flag, but he had not looked like troubling the McLarens at any stage and admitted he would still have been “miles off pole”.

All of which will doubtless fuel further speculation about the Dutchman’s future, which has already dominated this weekend, when the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, confirmed he was once more interested in persuading the world champion to leave Red Bull and join his team.

Verstappen refused to comment on this on Friday but, with resources already almost all shifted to the new 2026 cars already, the pecking order and form are likely to be more or less settled from here on in, and Red Bull remain off the pace being comprehensively set by McLaren.