The first of two races on Red Bull’s home turf, the Styrian GP, is just a few hours away and Max Verstappen has taken pole position with a spectacular lap in qualifying yesterday. He is surely determined to give his Red Bull colleagues a victory, and what better place to give them a victory than at their home Grand Prix in Austria.
However, the Dutchman should be aware of his surroundings. His arch-rival, Lewis Hamilton, is just behind him, so Max needs to keep his cool and ensure he doesn’t lose the lead to the Mercedes driver.
What about the rest of the grid for the Styrian GP?
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Red Bull‘s prodigy saw himself on top of the timesheet, and will hence start the race in first place. Mercedes‘ Valtteri Bottas qualified in P2, but a three-place grid penalty for his spin in the pitlane has pushed him down to P5.
So, Verstappen’s title rival and Bottas’ teammate, Hamilton, despite initially qualifying in P3, will start in second place. Continuing his sparkling run of form this season, McLaren’s Lando Norris will start in P3.
Mexico’s Sergio Perez will start in fourth place, followed by Bottas in fifth. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly will start in sixth, and Charles Leclerc only managed to secure a disappointing seventh-place finish.
Two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso will start the Styrian Grand Prix in eighth place, while Lance Stroll of Aston Martin has found himself in ninth place.
George Russell will have the best start of his career in tenth place, as Yuki Tsunoda, also awarded a three-place grid penalty, will start his race in eleventh place.
Carlos Sainz failed to crack into Q3 and will see the five red lights in twelfth place. Daniel Ricciardo, despite being the second-fastest in FP2, qualified in a lowly P13. Four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel will have a huge task ahead of him as he starts in fourteenth place.
Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi will start in fifteenth place, followed by Williams’s Nicholas Latifi in sixteenth and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in seventeenth place.
Rounding up the bottom three, veteran driver, Kimi Raikkonen is in eighteenth place, while the two Haas rookies, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin start in P19 and P20, respectively.
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Can Max achieve a back-to-back win?
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The 23-year-old driver won the last Grand Prix at Paul Ricard. And, now having achieved pole position at the Styrian GP this weekend, he surely looks set to have another impressive race day.
Furthermore, the Dutch driver is heading the drivers’ standings with a twelve-point lead, and a win at the Red Bull Ring will see him extend his lead against title-rival, Hamilton.
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Just a few hours away from the eighth race of the championship, who do you think will take home the twenty-five points? Let us know in the comments below.
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