Russell claims controversial pole after Verstappen crash

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, George Russell is third in the drivers' championship By Andrew Benson F1 Correspondent Published 3 minutes ago Mercedes driver George Russell controversially stole pole position at the Austrian Grand Prix from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc with the last lap of the session. The result came amid late drama as Russell set his lap, beating Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, despite passing yellow flags for a crash by Red Bull's Max Verstappen at the penultimate corner. Russell's team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who was running just ahead of the Briton, also passed the Verstappen incident, but did not improve his time and will line up fourth. McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were sixth and seventh behind Verstappen, who kept fifth despite his crash. Russell insisted he had slowed sufficiently for the Verstappen incident, and claimed there was just a single yellow flag showing, rather than the double waved yellows which might have been expected for such a situation. "I had a big lift," Russell said. "I went into the corner 0.5secs up and I came out 0.25secs up. It was great to get that lap. "I just spoke with Toto [Wolff, team principal] and he said everything is fine with the yellow flag. Big 100m lift before the corner. So that's good to hear." The late drama was caused by a big crash for Verstappen, who lost control going into the high-speed downhill right-hander and spun across the gravel into the barrier. Related topics Formula 1 More on this story How to follow Austrian Grand Prix on the BBC Published 21 hours ago Austrian GP declared heat-hazard race amid heatwave Published 2 days ago