Max Verstappen (5th) after the crash: “What happened there is really strange”

Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing took a risk at the Red Bull Ring, and it almost paid off. In the second qualifying segment, Max saved a set of soft tyres – he almost got knocked out! He made it through to Q3 by just four hundredths of a second ahead of Pierre Gasly and into P10.

In Q3 (12 minutes), all the top drivers were on two sets of fresh Pirelli tyres. Norris set the fastest time initially, but then Max came along – half a second faster; we could hear the fans’ applause all the way to the press centre!

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri couldn’t respond, but Kimi Antonelli could – the Italian took the lead by 61 thousandths! Then Russell edged out Verstappen by 18 thousandths.

Where was Ferrari? Hamilton had messed up Turn 3; the Barcelona GP winner was in P10 with no time recorded. Charles Leclerc was fifth at that point.

As qualifying drew to a close, events unfolded in rapid succession: Hamilton was back on top, then Leclerc took the lead – and then Verstappen crashed!

The four-time world champion lost control of his car as he turned into the penultimate corner; the car skidded across the gravel trap and crashed broadside into the tyre barriers. Max got out of the car himself and walked away, visibly shaken.

As if the fans weren’t stunned enough, Mercedes driver George Russell emerged at the top of the timesheets shortly afterwards, whilst championship leader Kimi Antonelli had abandoned his attempt.

We will never know whether Max Verstappen would have secured his fifth Austrian Grand Prix pole position on his final attempt (and, at the same time, his 49th Formula 1 pole, the first since Abu Dhabi 2025).

The Dutchman, upon his return to the Red Bull Ring paddock, said: “We’ll have to look into what happened there; I don’t have an explanation at the moment either. What happened there is really strange.”

“I already had a bit of a scare on that final lap as I was approaching Turn 6. I found that strange in itself, because nothing like that had ever happened to me at that spot all weekend. And then I got to Turn 9, turned in and immediately flew off the track! Really strange.”

“The crash had nothing to do with all the new parts or the fact that I don’t yet know the handling in detail. I’d done a good lap in the first part of qualifying; the feeling was right. But on the second attempt, it was different.”

What would have been a realistic outcome without the crash? Max: “I reckon if I’d been able to finish the lap, third place would have been possible.”

The big question: does Red Bull Racing have enough parts in its kit to bring Verstappen’s car back to the technical specification it was in before qualifying? Max: “Yes, that’ll be fine.”

Sky GP expert Timo Glock knows: “Max Verstappen very rarely makes mistakes. But the fact is, he sensed a chance at pole, and when you’re already pushing the limit and then go just a fraction too far, that sort of thing can happen – even 2 km/h is enough. I got the impression there was too much movement in the car, too much instability. And then the car slipped out of his control.”