Lewis Hamilton will start the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race from 18TH

Lewis Hamilton will start the sprint race in Austria from 18th, as Max Verstappen took pole position.

Hamilton’s lowly grid position is a result of the seven-time world champion having three laps deleted for transgressing track limits during the so-called ‘shootout’ qualifying session on Saturday morning.

The 23-lap sprint will take place on Saturday afternoon (3.30pm BST) with eight points on offer to the winner. The result will have no bearing on the grand prix grid on Sunday.

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, a barely believable 0.5sec back on a drying track, will start Saturday’s blast in second place with Lando Norris a brilliant third for McLaren.

Hamilton was nonplussed as his fate sunk in, saying over the radio: ‘That was really bad time usage, man. Are we out?’

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole position with Sergio Perez second at the Red Bull Ring

‘Yes, we are,’ replied race engineer Pete Bonnington.

It was only the second time in six years that Hamilton has failed to make it out of Q3 – the last time being in Jeddah last season.

Here he was penalised for straying beyond the white lights at the final corner, Turn 10, on each occasion. He was far from the only driver to see his time deleted – with 47 times scrubbed on Friday night in qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix.

‘The sprint race doesn’t really matter,’ reflected Hamilton. ‘Today I’ll have some fun from the back.

‘I wish I was still out there (qualifying) but there’s nothing really to say. We focus on what we can do, and we could easily have been much further up.’

It was a poor session at an overcast Red Bull Ring for Mercedes, with George Russell pulling out after Q2 with a hydraulic problem. He will start 15th.

Despite the disappointing finish, Hamilton vowed to ‘have some fun from the back’