{"id":1053754,"date":"2026-06-27T15:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T15:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1053754\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T15:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T15:45:18","slug":"f1-austrian-gp-george-russell-avoids-investigation-to-take-pole-after-max-verstappen-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1053754\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Austrian GP: George Russell avoids investigation to take pole after Max Verstappen crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> has taken pole position for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand\u00a0Prix after avoiding an investigation for setting his lap under yellow flag conditions following Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s crash.<\/p>\n

The Red Bull driver spun into the barrier at the penultimate corner, benefiting those who\u2019d already set their lap or Russell, who was just behind Verstappen as it happened.<\/p>\n

Russell confirmed “I lifted at the entry into that corner\u201d and that he \u201clost a lot of time\u201d, while under single-waved yellow flags and not double, so he kept a fourth pole of the season.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes<\/a> driver did so with a 1m06.113s, meaning he will share the front row with Charles Leclerc<\/a>, who benefited from setting his 1m06.349s before Verstappen\u2019s crash.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari<\/a> driver pipped team-mate Lewis Hamilton<\/a> by 0.059s and the seven-time world champion is set to share the second row with Russell\u2019s team-mate Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Antonelli lost out the most due to Verstappen\u2019s crash, as he was on provisional pole with a 1m06.414s, but the championship leader aborted his final lap to take fourth.<\/p>\n

Verstappen had produced a brilliant opening tour with a 1m06.475s, which put him third behind the Mercedes pair, but his crash dropped him to fifth ahead of sixth-placed Lando Norris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reigning world champion qualified 0.009s ahead of McLaren<\/a> stablemate Oscar Piastri<\/a> in seventh, with Red Bull\u2019s Isack Hadjar<\/a> and Racing Bulls<\/a> pair Liam Lawson<\/a> and Arvid Lindblad<\/a> completing the top 10.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen brought an early end to qualifying in Austria<\/p>\n

Photo by: Clive Rose \/ Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Verstappen had already survived a scare in Q2, having not left his garage for a second push lap based on Red Bull projections that his 1m07.183s was good enough to progress.<\/p>\n

That was also done to save an extra set of fresh softs, but the four-time world champion gradually slipped from seventh to 10th, with Hadjar and the Racing Bulls pair jumping ahead of him<\/p>\n

As he dropped into 10th, Verstappen could do nothing but hope for survival and Pierre Gasly<\/a> was the one to watch, being up in the middle sector, but he ended up 0.040s shy to take 11th.<\/p>\n

That put him ahead of 12th-placed Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a>, who was 0.110s off the cut, with Oliver Bearman<\/a> subsequently qualifying 13th and point-less Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> in 14th.<\/p>\n

The under-pressure Esteban Ocon<\/a> avoided a fourth, consecutive Q1 exit to take 15th, while Franco Colapinto<\/a> qualified 16th to round out a Q2 session topped by Antonelli.<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz<\/a> suffered from a snap of oversteer at the final corner to only take 17th, one spot ahead of team-mate Alex Albon<\/a> in the first Williams<\/a> double Q1 elimination since China.<\/p>\n

Debutant\u00a0outfit Cadillac once again showed signs of progress as both cars qualified a second ahead of Aston Martin, with Sergio Perez<\/a> in 19th and Valtteri Bottas<\/a> taking 20th.<\/p>\n

That resulted in Aston occupying the back row for the third, consecutive qualifying session, as Fernando Alonso<\/a> claimed 21st ahead of Lance Stroll<\/a>, who was three seconds off Antonelli\u2019s Q1 benchmark.<\/p>\n

F1 Austrian GP: Qualifying results\u00a0
\nAll Stats<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has taken pole position for the Formula 1 Austrian Grand\u00a0Prix after avoiding an investigation for setting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1053755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[71438,289517,289444,707,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-1053754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-austrian-gp","tag-f1-austrian-gp-george-russell-avoids-investigation-to-take-pole-after-max-verstappen-crash","tag-f1-austrian-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116822850191041773","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1053754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1053755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1053754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1053754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1053754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}