Red Bull Honda vs Mercedes & The Numbers It was pole number seven for Max Verstappen, third in a row for the ultra-fast Dutchman looking to become the first F1 driver in history to sweep a triple header tomorrow. It was likely the loudest of his career as well as an incredible Verstappen fan club attendance; the ‘Orange Army’ not only turned out, but turned up the volume during qualifying cheering their driver to pole position. Hamilton was once again left to lose alongside his team Mercedes. Not only are they having an astoundingly bad season pertaining to year on year development losses, they were the least progressed team from the Styrian GP just one week ago to the Austrian GP this week at the same circuit. Mercedes ranked last in overall lap time progression. It’s absolutely baffling how poorly things have unfolded this year for the German squad.