{"id":764901,"date":"2026-06-28T02:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T02:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/764901\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T02:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T02:30:15","slug":"f1-news-2026-max-verstappen-crash-video-george-russell-takes-austrian-pole-oscar-piastri-seventh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/764901\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 News 2026: Max Verstappen crash video, George Russell takes Austrian pole, Oscar Piastri seventh"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> was able to snatch pole for the Austrian Grand Prix ahead of the two charging Ferraris<\/a> on Saturday night (AEST). <\/p>\n

This was thanks to Max Verstappen<\/a>\u2019s mistake, the Red Bull driver spinning off the track toward the barrier in the dying moments of qualifying, causing a yellow flag which means all drivers must slow down. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen crashed in the dying moments.\u00a0Clive Rose<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s timing initially wasn\u2019t great as he came through the second-to-last corner only moments after the Red Bull<\/a> driver veered off. <\/p>\n

Initially, the paddock called a 1-2 result in the Ferrari\u2019s garage favour, Russell then argued he lifted off the accelerator earlier than usual for the corner, saying his lap was still enough for first place.<\/p>\n

The stewards agreed and deemed the incident needed \u201cno further investigation\u201d, keeping Russell on pole ahead of Charles Leclerc<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton<\/a>. This result keeps Mercedes\u2019 Formula 1<\/a> pole position streak alive. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was glad common sense prevailed,\u201d Russell said of the steward\u2019s ruling. <\/p>\n

With a margin of 0.236 of a second over Leclerc despite lifting off, Russell will be a clear favourite to win for the first time since the season-opener in Melbourne<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s stellar teammate Kimi Antonelli<\/a> backed off his last qualifying run, believing wrongly it was a double yellow and could only put himself in fourth place for the F1 race. <\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s earlier time was still good enough for fifth ahead of the McLaren<\/a>\u2019s of Lando Norris<\/a> in sixth and Australia\u2019s Oscar Piastri<\/a> in seventh.<\/p>\n

The key factor keeping Russell\u2019s lap on the board was that there was a single, not double, yellow flag waving at the corner.<\/p>\n

A single yellow means drivers need to be able to show they slowed down noticeably. <\/p>\n

A double signifies more immediate danger, and in qualifying means drivers should abandon any attempt at setting a competitive lap time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even see the car because the runoff is so far and I think in that instance a single yellow was correct because a double yellow is immediate danger,\u201d Russell explained in his defence. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen will start in fifth after aborted qualifying lap. \u00a0Marcel van Dorst<\/p>\n

He argued it was the right call because Verstappen\u2019s car was on the other side of a gravel runoff area, meaning Russell didn\u2019t risk potentially hitting the wreckage.<\/p>\n

Red Bull took the \u201cfull\u201d blame for the crash of their champion, team principal Laurent Mekies admitting Verstappen had \u201cno chance to survive\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe delivered an excellent first run in Q3, and his final run was very fast until he lost the car in turn 9,\u201d Mekies said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe dynamic of the incident was quite unusual, and we lost aero performance on the rear of the car, and it gave Max no chance to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a team, we take full responsibility for it and apologise to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

– with AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell was able to snatch pole for the Austrian Grand Prix ahead of the two charging Ferraris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-764901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}