The last two races have devolved into a fight between Verstappen and Norris for supremacy and so it was in sprint qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.

But whereas Norris pipped Verstappen to pole in Spain last weekend, the world champion was fastest in every session in the shortened qualifying session that is held for the sprint and always looked most likely to take pole.

In fact, Norris appeared to struggle through the first two sessions, in which he was only fourth and seventh, but pulled out a strong lap when it mattered.

First Russell, then Piastri set the pace, before Norris moved the goalposts by a large amount for such a short lap, only for Verstappen to re-establish himself at the front with the final lap of the session.

The crowd, a large portion of which have travelled from the Netherlands to support him in their trademark orange tops, cheered him across the line at what is Red Bull’s home race on a track they own.

Verstappen said: “It is great to be first here in front of basically my home fans my home grand prix, it has been a good day so far. It has been nice to drive the car. Immediately it was well balanced.

“Of course you make some small changes before spring qualifying and everything has been working really well.”

Leclerc suffered an engine problem at the end of the pit lane as the cars went out for the single lap which settles the sprint qualifying session.

His car went into anti-stall and then the engine stopped. By the time he had gone through the process of restarting the car, he did not have enough time to get around to the line before the chequered flag came out.