Red Bull’s hopes for a celebratory home Grand Prix in Austria were left in no little disarray despite great success on Saturday, after Max Verstappen weighed in to defend his father, Jos, in his ongoing row with Christian Horner.
Verstappen described the situation as far from ideal for himself or for the team. His comments overshadowed an impressive victory in the sprint race and in taking an absolutely dominant pole in qualifying. On Friday, Jos Verstappen accused Horner of being childish in claiming the team principal had vetoed him driving the 2012 Red Bull in the legends parade at the Red Bull Ring this weekend. Verstappen Sr was furious, saying he was “completely fed up” with Horner.
The spat was the latest instalment in the all-but irrevocably damaged relationship between the two men, which has been fractious and ill-tempered since Horner was accused of inappropriate behaviour by a female colleague. The claims were dismissed by an internal investigation but Verstappen Sr, who had been rumoured to have been part of a plot to oust Horner, had insisted Horner should leave the team before the furore around the investigation tore it apart.
Horner emphatically denied he had vetoed Verstappen Sr driving the Red Bull. However, Verstappen appeared to support his father’s version of events, rather than Horner’s, and said he believed the row was unnecessary.
“It’s not nice, not for myself, not for my dad, not for Christian, not for the team. Of course you don’t want these things to happen,” he said. “My dad has been quite clear about the reason behind it and I can understand his opinion on that because he gets asked to drive the car, finds out that he’s not wanted to drive the car. I’m here to focus on the performance side of things, so I want a good relationship with everyone. But this scenario could have been avoided.”
That this unseemly row has been brought back to the fore at the team’s home grand prix will not have been received well by Horner, the team, nor by its Austrian parent company, Red Bull GmbH, especially given Verstappen was once more in control on the track. He was in exemplary form in claiming pole with an immense lap of the Red Bull Ring, beating the McLaren of Lando Norris into second and the Mercedes of George Russell into third.
After a close sprint race, anticipation was high that qualifying would be equally competitive but Red Bull had found more and Verstappen returned his eighth pole of the year and his first since Imola with a mighty lap that had an air of his early season dominance.
He had looked quick throughout qualifying and opened well on the first hot laps in Q3, setting the pace with a 1min 04.426sec lap, enjoying a comfortable advantage of more than three-tenths on Norris.
For the final runs, the world champion went even quicker with a superb final sector to set a time of 1:04.314, forcing Norris to improve as well but there was little more he could do, finishing four-tenths back, an enormous and ominous gap that will likely be all but impossible to overcome in race pace.
Verstappen had already returned a strong win in the sprint race from pole, with a determined drive to see off the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who was second and Norris, who was third. It was the 26-year-old’s 10th sprint win but without the stability and balance he enjoyed for qualifying in an altogether more tense affair. He still had the edge but McLaren were formidably close. Norris had challenged hard early in the race and on lap five passed him into turn three for the lead only for Verstappen to immediately fight back and retake the place at turn four.
It was the decisive moment. Piastri took advantage as he, too, showed great pace in a three-way battle at the front, and nipped past at turn five to take second from his teammate. Once the Dutchman had his lead back, however, he was able to control to the flag, with Norris lamenting that he had left the door open for Verstappen to come back at him. With the win in the 100km dash, Verstappen now has a 71-point advantage over Norris in the world championship, a lead he looks more than likely to extend on Sunday.
In qualifying there was disappointment for Piastri who had done enough to claim third but had his time deleted for exceeding track limits and dropped to seventh. Carlos Sainz was fourth and Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton fifth for Mercedes. Sergio Pérez was in eighth for Red Bull, Nico Hülkenberg in ninth for Haas and Esteban Ocon in 10th for Alpine.
Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda were in 11th and 14th for RB, Pierre Gasly was in 12th, Kevin Magnussen in 13th for Haas and Fernando Alonso in 15th for Aston Martin. Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant were in 16th and 19th for Williams, Lance Stroll was 17th for Aston Martin and Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou in 18th and 20th for Sauber.
After qualifying the FIA fined RB driver Yuki Tsunoda €20,000 for making an ableist slur during qualifying when he was baulked in the pit lane by Zhou Guanyu’s Sauber.
The incident immediately drew criticism among fans and on social media and the FIA investigated, considering whether it breaches the sporting code in causing “moral injury” to the sport.
The FIA stated Tsunoda had apologised for his language. “During the hearing the driver was very apologetic and explained that because English is not his first language he was unaware until after the session what the meaning of the words used is in the English language,” the FIA stated. “He said that he was horrified when he learned this. He contended that his understanding of the words was different, but acknowledged that this should not be considered as an excuse.”