Lando Norris delivered an astonishing performance to secure pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix, outpacing his closest rival by over half a second on one of the Formula 1 calendar's shortest circuits. The McLaren driver's exceptional lap saw him finish 0.521 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with his McLaren teammate and championship leader, Oscar Piastri, placing third, just 0.062 seconds further back. Lewis Hamilton, in the second Ferrari, secured fourth position, followed by Mercedes' George Russell in fifth. Notably, Red Bull's Max Verstappen struggled, managing only seventh place after being affected by yellow flags on his final attempt, having already been sixth on his initial run.

Norris expressed satisfaction with his performance, stating, "It was a good lap, that's for sure. My Q3 run one was good but I knew there were a few places where if I just got it right I could make up quite a bit more time and I did that." This pole position is particularly significant for Norris, who arrived in Austria 22 points behind Piastri in the championship standings, especially after crashing out of the previous race in Canada due to contact with his teammate. He emphasized his desire to consistently prove himself, remarking, "Qualifying has been some of my tough moments so to put in a lap like this is pleasing for myself. It's a long race tomorrow and a long season. I want to prove it myself over and over again and this is just the beginning of it."

For Ferrari, Leclerc's second-place qualification marks only their second front-row start of the season, the first being his second-place grid position in Monaco. This positive result comes after the introduction of a new floor on the Ferrari car, which the team hopes will improve their performance after a challenging start to the season. Leclerc shared his satisfaction: "I am very pleased. Monaco was the last time we started on the front row and it has been a difficult season. We brought some new parts this weekend, which for sure have made a difference. I am very happy with the lap. We know we have a better car in the race normal than in qualifying so I hope we can put a bit more pressure on the McLarens in the race. He must have done an incredible lap. I have not seen it yet but I will definitely look at it, but tomorrow we will try to bring him a tough time."

Oscar Piastri, who was 0.286 seconds slower than Norris on their first laps, faced misfortune as he was unable to commence his final qualifying lap due to Alpine's Pierre Gasly having a double spin at the final corner directly in front of him. Piastri acknowledged Norris's pace but felt he had the speed for a front-row start: "Lando has been very quick all weekend so it would have been tough to beat him but I definitely had the speed to be on the front row. Just a tough day." Max Verstappen also had his lap compromised by Gasly's incident. The Dutchman admitted, "It depends how those last two corners would have gone. We would have been closer but it is still 0.5-0.6secs off which is of course a lot on a track like this. It just didn't work in qualifying for whatever reason, there was not one single corner where I felt we had a nice balance. We were not McLaren level but we were still OK but in qualifying it just disappeared."

Rounding out the top ten qualifiers were Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) in sixth, followed by Max Verstappen (Red Bull) in seventh, Sauber's rookie Gabriel Bortoleto in eighth, Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli in ninth, and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) in tenth.

The full qualifying results were: 1. Lando Norris (McLaren), 2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 3. Oscar Piastri (McLaren), 4. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), 5. George Russell (Mercedes), 6. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), 7. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 8. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), 9. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), 10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine).