Max Verstappen will start the Australian Grand prix from pole position for the first time tomorrow after finishing fastest in qualifying at Albert Park.
After earlier rain in final practice, the heavens did not open as the Red Bull driver set a standard of 1:16.732, just over two tenths quicker than George Russell, who outqualified his teammate Lewis Hamilton for the third time this season – in a surprise return to form by Mercedes.
“The last run was really good, I mean the whole weekend has been really tough to get the tyres in the window to push straight away, but it all worked out in Q3, Verstappen said.
“Very happy with the lap, of course very happy to be on pole position and looking forward to tomorrow.
“Tomorrow we’ll have a good race car but again it’s quite tricky on the tyre to keep them alive. Gonna be an interesting race for sure.”
George Russell was beaming with pride after Mecedes’ unexpected strong showing in qualifying in Melbourne.
“We weren’t expecting that, that’s for sure,” he exclaimed.
“Lot of hard work going on back at the factory (and) here in Melbourne.
“What a session for us. The car felt alive and the lap at the end was right on the limit.
“I’ve gotta be honest I was a little disappointed we didn’t get pole position. It’s one of those things how your expectations change so quickly in this sport.
“We would have been happy with a top four, top five yesterday…it goes to show we’ve still got potential to come.”
Meanwhile on the other side of the garage, Lewis Hamilton was equally as overjoyed at the performance of the Silver Arrows.
“This is totally unexpected, really really proud of the team,” he stated.
“For us to be on the two front rows is absolutely a dream for us.
“To be this close to Red Bull, it’s incredible.”
Fernando Alonso continued Aston Martin’s strong showing this season in fourth, just three hundredths of a second outside the top three.
Carlos Sainz was fifth for Ferrari, separated from his teammate Charles Leclerc by the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
Williams made their first Q3 appearance of 2023 after just one appearance in the final part of qualifying last season, with Alex Albon eighth fastest.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was ninth and the returning Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.
Q2
Esteban Ocon complained of traffic as he missed out on a Q3 by just 7 thousandths of a second, finishing his Saturday afternoon at Albert Park in 11th.
Both AlphaTauri cars were eliminated in Q2 – with Yuki Tsunoda quicker than his teammate Nyck De Vries in his first Q2 appearance in F1, the pair placed 12th and 15th respectively.
Lando Norris locked his rear brakes and ran off track in a similar position to Sergio Perez in Q1 – however was able to just skirt over the gravel and continue on to finish 13th ahead of Kevin Magnussen in 14th.
Q1
Williams were as keen as mustard and were the first cars out on track for qualifying at Albert Park. That eagerness translated to a spin by the rookie of their driver pairing in Logan Sargeant after clipping the curb at the final turn on his out lap.
The session was then red flagged when Sergio Perez has a repeat of his FP3 woes, locking up again into turn three – beaching himself in the gravel and the mud with 12 minutes to go.
He angrily confirmed the situation on his team radio after his qualifying came to a premature end.
“We need to fix it man. It was the same f*** issue,” the Red Bull driver said.
Oscar Piastri failed to progress to Q2 at his home race and for the first him in his F1 career, missing out by just four hundredths of a second.
The Aussie was on team radio during the session saying “the car is underbalanced.” He finished the session in 16th ahead of Zhou Guanyu in 17th.
Sargeant recovered from his earlier spin to finish 18th ahead of Valtteri Bottas in 19th.
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