Max Verstappen was rightly all smiles after delivering the pole that Red Bull had expected at the Styrian Grand Prix. His main title rival, Lewis Hamilton, could at best take his licks with resigned cheer as qualifying in Austria provided more definitive evidence that Mercedes are firmly on the back foot. Hamilton will start alongside Verstappen on the front row despite finishing third quickest. His teammate, Valtteri Bottas, was second but the Finn will start from fifth after incurring a three-place grid penalty for dangerous driving in the pit lane during second practice on Friday. Hamilton is in the best place to challenge Verstappen at the first of Red Bull’s two home GPs but his hopes are slim going on this performance. Verstappen was strong all weekend, and when it mattered most he put in two laps that were unmatchable. Ultimately he had almost two-tenths of an advantage over Mercedes thanks to some consistently inch-perfect circuits of the Red Bull Ring. Hamilton acknowledged he could do no more. “I got into qualifying and the car didn’t feel as good as it did in third practice,” he said. “These things happen, we gave it everything and we have a long race tomorrow so I hope the balance works for us. It’s going to be a tough battle with these guys, they have generally had the edge this weekend. The analysis is that they are a quarter of a second ahead on long-run pace but I hope we have closed that gap.” He badly needs to stay with Verstappen, who is on an absolute roll. He leads Hamilton by 12 points in the title race and his team have a 37-point advantage over Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. Verstappen’s sixth career pole is his third of the season and his second in a row, and also marks the first time he has taken two back to back. Verstappen won the last round in France and with two victories at the Red Bull Ring already under his belt in 2018 and 2019 – neither of which came from the front of the grid – he certainly knows how to win here. Understandably he was in fine humour. Responding to further questions about his new Honda engine, which it has been suggested has been improved - against the rules with a development freeze in place – he delivered a riposte, offering to provide hard-copy evidence that it is the low-drag rear wing making the difference. “I am going to bring a printout of the rear-wing difference we are running and hand it over to every single journalist,” he said, smiling. “We are really quick on the straights but look at the rear wing. Honda have done a great job but the new engine is all about reliability improvements and no advantage on our power. I am going to fire up my printer next time and hand over a few shots.” He is wearing his title lead with ease and took pole with some style in contrast with how hard Hamilton is having to push. On the final runs in Q3 Hamilton took two runs to set his best time of 1min 4.067sec. But Verstappen already had time to spare with his first lap of 1:03.841. The world champion went for a third run and on the out-lap passed other cars worried about their slow pace affecting his tyre warmup. He had to go on the dirty line to do so and subsequently had a poor exit from the final corner; as a result, he knew his final attempt was over by turn three. Verstappen’s final run of 1:03.919, meanwhile, meant both his laps were quick enough to have secured a dominant pole and he had looked positively serene throughout, ratcheting the pressure on Hamilton up another notch. McLaren’s Lando Norris was in fourth and will start from third with Sergio Pérez in fifth, to start from fourth. Pierre Gasly was in sixth for AlphaTauri with his teammate Yuki Tsunoda in eighth but the Japanese driver received a three-place grid penalty for blocking Bottas. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was in seventh, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in ninth and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 10th. George Russell was 11th for Williams, with Sebastian Vettel in 12th for Aston Martin. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was 13th with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in 14th and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi in 15th. Nicholas Latifi was in 16th for Williams in front of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon. Kimi Räikkönen was in 18th for Alfa Romeo with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in 19th and 20th for Haas. F1 has announced that the Igora Drive circuit outside St Petersburg will host the Russian GP from 2023. It has been held in Sochi since 2014.