Lando Norris took Austrian Grand Prix pole position by a ludicrous margin as his McLaren team-mate and Formula 1 championship rival Oscar Piastri was denied second by Charles Leclerc.
Though the final Q3 runs were slightly disrupted by yellow flags for Pierre Gasly spinning his Alpine out of the final corner, Norris's half-second advantage was not entirely down to that - and was still a stunning gap back to the rest of the field on a 63-second lap.
Piastri had to abandon his final lap because of those yellow flags and his earlier effort wasn't enough to stop Leclerc's Ferrari nipping between the McLarens.
Max Verstappen was also inconvenienced by the Gasly yellow and starts down in seventh, nearly a second off the pace.
Verstappen wasn't even the top driver from the Red Bull stable, as Liam Lawson enjoyed his strongest day of 2025 so far to qualify sixth for Racing Bulls.
Lewis Hamilton backed up Leclerc's form with fourth in the second Ferrari, ahead of Canada polesitter and race winner George Russell as Mercedes had a muted day in the climbong temperatures.
Both Russell and team-mate Kimi Antonelli flirted with elimination in the final seconds of both Q1 and Q2 before at least making it to the pole shootout and qualifying fifth and ninth.
Gabriel Bortoleto continued his superb weekend to qualify eighth for Sauber, as experienced team-mate Nico Hulkenberg fell in Q1 after locking up on his last lap.
Williams's Carlos Sainz joined Hulkenberg on the back row, blaming both a suspected brake problem and damage he incurred while grappling with it.
Yuki Tsunoda was the other big Q1 exit, a 0.263s deficit to Red Bull team-mate Verstappen the difference between a safe sixth place and a painful 18th in a tight field.
The session was delayed by the knock-on effects of a heavy Formula 2 crash, and then interrupted in Q2 by a red flag for a grass fire out of the final corner that the FIA said was triggered by a car going off there rather than sparks.
