Max Verstappen could count on huge support from the Red Bull Ring crowd, and delighted his gathered fans by securing pole position for Saturday's Sprint race.
The Dutchman's Orange Army made their voices heard and could not be missed as they let off smoke flares which drifted across the track throughout the day. With support like that it felt inevitable that the Red Bull man would go fastest in qualifying, even with the likes of Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in the hunt.
Lewis Hamilton also had ambitions of pole with his Mercedes performing better. But he crashed during Q3, causing heavy damage to his car, while team-mate George Russell also hit a tyre wall moments after the session was restarted. The locals made little attempt to hide their delight as Verstappen's old rival crashed out.
The stewards were strict when it came to track limits from the get-go, with several drivers all having times deleted. Verstappen was one of those to have all his hard work thrown away in Q1, but he soon removed any worries about a shock result with one more hot lap which comfortably secured his place in the next part of the session.
But he was not joined by former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who missed out by two hundredths of a second and will start the sprint race from 16th. Both Aston Martins were also in the bottom five, in another poor result for Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, joined by Zhou Guanyu and Nicholas Latifi.
In Q2 it was the turn of the other Red Bull driver to worry about elimination, but just scraped through right at the end after having two other hot laps deleted. Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon all failed to make the top 10, while Lando Norris was unable to set a time after struggling with the brakes and tyres in his McLaren.
It was during Q3 that the red flags were waved on two separate occasions, the first coming out for Hamilton's crash as he pushed to put his car on the front row. Things got worse for Mercedes, as Russell also skidded off shortly after the restart, leaving their mechanics with a lot of repair work to do overnight.
Once those two Mercedes cars had been removed from danger, the session resumed and Ferrari thought for a moment they may have spoiled the party for their Red Bull rivals. Both Leclerc and Sainz set faster times than Verstappen on their final hot laps – causing a brief moment of concern among the orange-clad fans supporting Verstappen.
But there ended up being nothing to worry about, as the Red Bull man found the extra pace he needed to make sure he will start Saturday's Sprint race from the very front of the pack. He will have the two Ferraris directly behind him, with Perez completing the second row in fourth.
Full 2022 Austrian Grand Prix qualifying results
- Max Verstappen – Red Bull
- Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
- Carlos Sainz – Ferrari
- Sergio Perez – Red Bull
- George Russell – Mercedes
- Esteban Ocon – Alpine
- Kevin Magnussen – Haas
- Mick Schumacher – Haas
- Fernando Alonso – Alpine
- Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
- Pierre Gasly – AlphaTauri
- Alexander Albon – Williams
- Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo
- Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri
- Lando Norris – McLaren
- Daniel Ricciardo – McLaren
- Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
- Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo
- Nicholas Latifi – Williams
- Sebastian Vettel – Aston Martin
