Max Verstappen qualified on the pole for Saturday's 24-lap Sprint race - the result of which will then determine the grid for Sunday's 71-lap Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen sealed the pole on the final run in Q3, following two red flags after both Mercedes cars went off in separate incidents. Red Bull's Carlos Sainz, winner of last weekend's British Grand Prix, qualified fourth for Saturday's Sprint race.

Scuderia Ferrari missed out on the top slot by a whisker, with Charles Leclerc's best lap just 29 thousandths off Max Verstappen's time. Leclerc will start from second place on the grid, with team-mate Carlos Sainz third, 82 thousandths off the pole time.

"It was very close, but Max was just in front today. I had some understeer after the red flags as I struggled to get the tyres back in the right window, so I didn't have a perfect lap," said Leclerc. "It's a shame, but it's only Friday and it's Sunday that really counts. Tomorrow it will be important to work on driving style in FP2 and then have a very good Sprint."

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was on course to improve his lap time in Q3 when a snap on the entry to Turn Seven saw him lose the rear end and crash.

Following the red flag for Lewis's accident, teammate George Russell was on course to improve his time when he lost the rear end of the car on entry to Turn Ten, after it was unsettled on the Turn Nine exit kerb.

"I think that was our best qualifying session of the year in terms of pure pace - and the worst in terms of the outcome. Racing can be like that sometimes," said Russell. "I could have been P4 this afternoon and I was one tenth up on my lap, and absolutely went for it because I thought there was a chance of P3. I'm feeling fine physically - but I'm concerned about the car."

"I don't have an answer right now to what happened. I lost the back end in Turn Seven and that was that. I was encouraged to see our performance, though. I think we were fighting for a top three start - and we weren't expecting to be that close," said Hamilton.

Russell will start Saturday's Sprint race in P5 with Hamilton rounding out the top ten.

Coming off a strong showing last weekend at the British Grand Prix, Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher qualified seventh and eighth respectively.

"It was a very good day today. We started strong in FP1, everything was calm and we had no issues. Then we went into qualifying knowing that we can make it into Q3 on performance and we executed it," said Guenther Steiner, Haas Team Principal. "It was a good job by the whole team, and hopefully we can take it over to tomorrow's Sprint, keep on getting points and continuing like last week."

BWT Alpine's Esteban Ocon will start Saturday's sprint race sixth on the grid with teammate Fernando Alonso starting ninth. It's the team's fifth Q3 appearance with both cars this season.

"Esteban has been solid today and improved lap after lap, session by session, which built him up nicely through to his last run in Q3. Fernando can count himself slightly unfortunate after damaging the floor during his first run in Q3, which compromised some performance," said Alan Permane, Alpine's Sporting Director.

NOTE: Red Bull's Sergio Perez will start Saturday's Sprint from 13th after being penalised for exceeding track limits in Q2.

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SPRINT QUALIFYING
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Pos	Driver		Team		Laps		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:04.984	148.639 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:05.013	0.029
3	Sainz		Ferrari		1:05.066	0.082
4	Perez		Red Bull	1:05.404	0.420
5	Russell		Mercedes	1:05.431	0.447
6	Ocon		Alpine		1:05.726	0.742
7	Magnussen	Haas		1:05.879	0.895
8	Schumacher	Haas		1:06.011	1.027
9	Alonso		Alpine		1:06.103	1.119
10	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:13.151	8.167
11	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:06.160	
12	Albon		Williams	1:06.230	
13	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:06.319	
14	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:06.851	
15	Norris		McLaren		1:25.847	
16	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:06.613	
17	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:06.847	
18	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:06.901	
19	Latifi		Williams	1:07.003	
20	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:07.083	



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FP1 
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Pos	Driver		Team		Laps		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:06.302	145.684 mph
2	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:06.557	0.255
3	Russell		Mercedes	1:06.702	0.400
4	Perez		Red Bull	1:06.839	0.537
5	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:06.909	0.607
6	Magnussen	Haas		1:06.965	0.663
7	Sainz		Ferrari		1:07.039	0.737
8	Alonso		Alpine		1:07.100	0.798
9	Schumacher	Haas		1:07.246	0.944
10	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:07.296	0.994
11	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:07.431	1.129
12	Ocon		Alpine		1:07.462	1.160
13	Vettel		Aston Martin	1:07.476	1.174
14	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:07.522	1.220
15	Albon		Williams	1:07.582	1.280
16	Gasly		AlphaTauri	1:07.592	1.290
17	Ricciardo	McLaren		1:07.743	1.441
18	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:07.889	1.587
19	Latifi		Williams	1:08.149	1.847
20	Norris		McLaren		1:09.915	3.613