Provisional starting position sprint race Austria | Leclerc drops after penalty

Max Verstappen is the pole-sitter. He sees next to him teammate Sergio Perez, who recovered from a poorer Friday. Behind, Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg will mostly be looking backwards, rather than forwards. The two drivers did better than expected in the Sprint Shootout and hope to hold on among the top teams for as long as possible.

That will be tough enough, because with drivers like Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso on the third row of the grid, they will have to try tooth and nail to defend their positions. Charles Leclerc was initially supposed to start from P6, but he was given a three-place grid penalty for interfering with Oscar Piastri. The Ferrari driver will be keen to get back in the points.

Only the top-eight get points in the sprint race and that means it is going to be very difficult for Mercedes to do good business for the world championship. George Russell starts from P15, Lewis Hamilton starts on the penultimate row of the grid (P18).