Another Sprint Qualifying pole position for Max Verstappen, his eighth from the 15 times this format has been used.

It's also his sixth consecutive success in a pole position shoot-out at the Red Bull Ring: 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, 2021 and 2023, Austrian Grand Prix and Sprint Qualifying here for the past two years. The Red Bull Racing driver was quickest in all three sections of qualifying, with 1'04"686 his best time in Q3. Joining him at the top end of the time sheet were the two McLaren drivers, with Lando Norris second in 1'04"779 and Oscar Piastri third in 1'04"987. This trio were the only ones to get under the 1'05" barrier.

The Sprint weekend format means that the only free practice session is particularly important to prepare the cars for the flying lap discipline, as well as evaluating tyre behaviour over a long run and today was no exception. During FP1, temperatures rose considerably, as the clouds gradually made way for the rays of the sun, the track going from 31 to 45 °C.

All drivers, with the exception of Lewis Hamilton who only used one set of Hards throughout, used two different compounds (not counting Aston Martin, who used one set of Medium and one of Hard, simply to bed them in): Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin and Alpine ran with Hard and Soft; Red Bull, Williams, Racing Bulls, Sauber and Haas with Medium and Soft.

Max Verstappen was presented with the Pirelli Sprint Qualifying Award by Verena Culka, a lucky fan chosen by the Austrian Grand Prix promoter to enjoy this exclusive experience. Handmade in Italy, the trophy consists of a square of FSC™ certified natural rubber, enclosed between two pieces of glass on which is etched the layout of the Red Bull Ring and the FSC™ logo, a stylised tree. The same rubber is part of the raw materials used in the manufacture of all the Pirelli P Zero Formula 1 tyres, complying with the environmental and social sustainability criteria defined by the forestry management non-governmental organisation.

Simone Berra: "All in all, it was a fairly normal Friday for a Sprint weekend, with the teams in free practice doing several runs with relatively different programmes in terms of stint length and fuel loads. From our side, there were no particular surprises with how the three compounds we chose for this Grand Prix behaved. As expected, there seems to be no graining, but overheating is a major factor. Sprint Qualifying provides an opportunity to compare the performance of the Medium and the Soft in very similar conditions over a flying lap and the difference we saw today, of around four tenths, is also in line with our expectations.

"The most relevant data is linked to the extensive use of the Hard, by half the teams, which leads us to believe that that their preferred strategy should be to run Medium-Hard-Medium, given that a two-stop is the quickest choice. However, the other five teams have left the door open to run two sets of Hard or two sets of Medium. It's worth noting that today's times are generally a few tenths slower than last year's qualifying held on Friday afternoon is similar weather conditions to today's. Tomorrow, track temperature should be around 40 °C or higher and the Medium should be the preferred choice for all drivers, which will produce useful information for Sunday's race."

Check out our Friday gallery from the Red Bull Ring here.