Max Verstappen takes Australian Grand Prix pole position from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton as Sergio Perez crashes
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Updated 01/04/2023 at 09:55 GMT
Max Verstappen is perfectly poised to extend his lead in the Formula 1 standings as he took pole position at the Australian Grand Prix for the first time in his career. Red Bull have struggled at Albert Park over the last decade and it wasn’t all plain-sailing for them as Sergio Perez had a nightmare Saturday with several offs in FP3 and beached his car in qualifying, so will start last.
'We need better results here' - Verstappen knows Red Bull can improve at Melbourne
Max Verstappen took pole position from George Russell and Lewis Hamilton for the Australian Grand Prix in tricky conditions during qualifying in Melbourne.
Light rain before qualifying, cool conditions and chaos in the three practice sessions meant there were plenty of unknowns, but Verstappen came out on top with a superb final run in Q3 that was 0.236 seconds faster than Russell, with Hamilton another 0.136 seconds further adrift.
Verstappen, who has never won at Albert Park, was the only driver in Q3 to not do a warm-up lap before his flying laps.
“The last run was very good,” said Verstappen. “The whole weekend has been very tough to get the tyres ready to push straightaway but it worked out in Q3 and I am very happy with the lap and to be on pole position.
"I think we always try to fine-tune and we will continue to do that. I think we will have a good race car but it is tricky to keep the tyres alive so it will be an interesting race for sure.
"I have been on the podium once here but I want to be on a different step this time.”
Hamilton and Russell were both surprised to be in the top three, with the latter keen to understand where Mercedes’ pace came from, considering their relatively poor start to the season.
"We weren't expecting that, that's for sure,” added Russell. "A lot of hard work going on at the factory, here in Melbourne and wow, what a session for us.
"The car felt alive, the lap at the end was right on the limit and to be honest I'm a little bit disappointed that we didn't get pole position.
"It's one of those things where your expectations change so quickly in this sport.
"We would have been happy with a top four, top five yesterday. The car felt awesome and we've definitely got potential still to come.”
The other big story from qualifying was Sergio Perez’s off in Q1 as he had a nightmare Saturday in Melbourne.
In third practice, Perez appeared to have a mechanical problem early on and went off the track several times as he struggled with the balance of his car.
On his first flying lap in Q1, the Red Bull driver locked up going into Turn 3 and had a trip through the gravel and beached his car, so was out of qualifying and will start from the back of the grid.
Fernando Alonso was fourth for Aston Martin and should be in the fight for the podium places as he looks to take a hat-track of podiums to start his season.
Ferrari didn’t have the one-lap pace they showed in Bahrain and Jeddah, as Carlos Sainz was fifth and Charles Leclerc seventh, with Lance Stroll in between them.
Alex Albon only reached Q3 once last year but qualified an impressive eighth, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg.
Esteban Ocon missed out on Q3 by 0.007 seconds, so will start 11th, in front of Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Kevin Magnussen and Nyck de Vries.
Oscar Piastri failed to get out of the first part of qualifying, continuing the theme of Australian drivers not doing well, or having misfortune, at their home event over the last two decades.
Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas and Perez make up the back of the pack for the third Grand Prix of the season.
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