Max Verstappen has broken his pole position drought in stunning fashion for the Austrian Grand Prix. While the rest of the field is extremely tight, Verstappen managed to secure a gap of 0.404s over second-place Lando Norris.
Verstappen understandably sees this masterclass as a “great statement” about the performance of his RB20 — but his competition on the Austrian Grand Prix field see things a little differently. For them, the Dutch driver’s pace is a “reality check.” Additional reporting by Thomas Maher McLaren’s Oscar Piastri perhaps said it best when he referred to Max Verstappen’s pace as a ‘reality check’ while speaking after qualifying.
He admitted that he was “a little bit” shocked by the RB20 racer’s pace. “His lap in Q2 was I think a bit of a reality check for everyone, and obviously he repeated it in Q3,” Piastri said to media including PlanetF1.com.
“ The gap seems to be a little bit bigger in that session for whatever reason, and clearly they’re still the force to beat.” Piastri wasn’t the only driver to comment on Verstappen’s speed. In speaking about the changes Mercedes made to his car between the sprint race and qualifying, Lewis Hamilton said his machinery felt better — but still behind.
“I mean, we’re down a lot in the high speed compared to Max,” he said. “It’s insane how much faster they are in high speed.” 👉 Austrian GP: Max Verstappen storms to pole position after closest Q1 in F1 history 👉 Os.
