Lando Norris secures pole with confident pace at Austrian Grand Prix
The British driver set an early final lap and was unrivalled after his competitors had to slow for yellow flags.
SPIELBERG–Lando Norris made the most of qualifying at the Red Bull Ring to take pole for the Austrian Grand Prix.
A spin for Alpine's Pierre Gasly saw Norris' main rivals have to miss out on their final attempts, with the McLaren driver locked in at the top of the timing sheets.
"Oh, it was a good lap, that’s for sure," said Norris.
"I guess just little bit by little bit. I feel even like my Q3 run one was good, but I knew there’s a few places where if I just got it right, I could get still quite a bit more time. And I did exactly that.
"So, I did what I planned to do. And when I plan to do something and it goes right, it normally goes very, very well.
"So yeah, very happy. A good day. It’s been a good weekend for me so far, so hopefully we can keep it up."
Norris will start the grand prix with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc alongside him on the front row, with teammate and championship rival Oscar Piastri in third.
Eliminated in Q1 were Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, and Nico Hulkenberg.
Sainz reported possible damage to his car, while there was disappointment for both Red Bull's Tsunoda and Kick Sauber's Hulkenberg as they both saw their teammates progress comfortably.
In fact, it was five cars from five different teams all knocked out in the first part of the qualifying session under the Austrian sun.
Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Isack Hadjar, Franco Colapinto, and Ollie Bearman were out in Q2, while Gabriel Bortoleto shone with a massive lap that took him to Q3 for the first time in his Formula One career.
With Red Bull drivers reporting brake issues throughout the day, Max Verstappen lamented that "the car is completely undriveable" on their home track.
It seemed Mercedes were also struggling potentially due to the hot conditions, and it was wide open behind the McLaren duo as the final shootout began.
Norris took his twelfth career pole with a lap of 1:03.971, the only driver to get under the 1:04 barrier.
After sitting out of FP1 to make way for FIA Formula 2 driver Alex Dunne, Norris has led every session of the weekend since, and he took pole by the largest margin of the season so far, 0.521 seconds faster than Leclerc.
"It's very satisfying, but, again, it's about consistency," said the British McLaren driver.
"Everyone can be a hero in one weekend. It's progress. It's steps forward. I'm very happy with today, but it's still a long journey. It's a long season.
"The job I needed to do today, I did. And it doesn't make up for the last few weekends or anything, but I did it today, and that's what mattered.
"So, yeah, very satisfied and happy for putting it together when I needed to."
The first two rows are the exact same as last month's Monaco Grand Prix, with Norris to start ahead of Leclerc and Piastri, with Lewis Hamilton completing the top four.
George Russell was fifth, with Liam Lawson outqualifying Max Verstappen in the Racing Bull machinery, sixth and seventh respectively.
Bortoleto was eight, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli ninth and Gasly completing the top ten after his spin.
