Austrian Grand Prix: George Russell grabs pole from Charles Leclerc after Max Verstappen crash

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.

Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad completed the top 10.