Russell claims controversial pole after Verstappen crash

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, George Russell is third in the drivers' championship ByAndrew BensonF1 CorrespondentPublished21 minutes agoMercedes driver George Russell controversially snatched pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc with the last lap of the session.The result came amid late drama as Russell set his lap, beating Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, despite passing yellow flags for a crash by Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the penultimate corner.Russell's team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who was running just ahead of the Briton, also passed the Verstappen incident, but did not improve his time and will line up fourth.

McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were sixth and seventh behind Verstappen, who kept fifth despite his crash.Russell insisted he had slowed sufficiently for the Verstappen incident, and claimed there was just a single yellow flag showing, rather than the double waved yellows which might have been expected for such a situation."I had a big lift," Russell said.

"I went into the corner 0.5secs up and I came out 0.25secs up.

It was great to get that lap."I just spoke with Toto [Wolff, team principal] and he said everything is fine with the yellow flag. Big 100m lift before the corner.

So that's good to hear."The stewards decided that Russell had slowed sufficiently to be allowed to keep his pole position, having beaten Leclerc by 0.236 seconds.

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Max Verstappen will start fifth on the grid at the Red Bull Ring The late drama was caused by a big crash for Verstappen, who lost control going into the high-speed downhill right-hander and spun across the gravel into the barrier.Ferrari and McLaren did their runs early enough to complete their laps before Verstappen, but the Mercedes drivers were running behind the Dutchman on track.Until Russell's unexpected improvement, the crash had seemed to secure a front row for Ferrari, who had not looked like pole contenders until the end of qualifying.

Leclerc was 0.059 seconds faster than Hamilton, who had been the quicker Ferrari driver all weekend.Hamilton made a mistake on his first run in Q3, locking a brake at Turn Three, and had to abort the lap.

That left him having a different risk-reward balance on the final lap and he did not have quite enough to beat his team-mate.Antonelli backed off completely on his final lap on the approach to Turn Nine, and was nearly two seconds slower than his final run.Verstappen's first lap, which was third fastest behind Antonelli and Russell, was good enough for fifth place.

The McLaren drivers both improved on their final runs, but Norris ended up just 0.027secs slower than Verstappen, Piastri 0.009secs further behind.

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