Verstappen takes pole for Australian GP ahead of Sainz

Max Verstappen took his third consecutive pole position, pinching top spot from Carlos Sainz at the Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen struggled to string together a clean lap in any of the three practice sessions ahead of qualifying, but he banished those bad memories to extinguish hopes of a Ferrari upset.

The reigning champion and 2023 Melbourne polesitter and winner was flawless when it counted. Both his laps in Q3 were quick enough to secure pole, with his fastest time of 1m 15.915s getting the job done with a healthy 0.27s margin.

“It was a bit unexpected,” he said. “But I’m very happy with Q3.

“I think both of those laps felt very, very nice, very enjoyable.

“It’s been tricky this weekend so far, but we managed to be there in the end, so I’m happy with that.”

Sainz was Verstappen’s closest challenger, recovering from appendix surgery two weeks ago, to qualify on the front row at a race in which the majority of winners have come from the first two places on the grid.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks,” he said. “A lot of days in bed waiting for this moment to see if I could be here today.

“To make it to this weekend and to put it on the front row after leading through qualifying I was almost not believing it.”

Sergio Perez completed the top three for Red Bull, but the Mexican is under threat of a post-race investigation into impeding Nico Hulkenberg in Q1.

Second in the championship, Perez said he was way of Ferrari’s race pace around Albert Park and predicted a varied race.

“I think tomorrow we’ve got a fight on our hands with Ferrari and the rest of the field,” he said. “Starting position is not that relevant at the moment.

“We’ve changed a bit our strategy for tomorrow. Let’s see who can survive the most on the degradation side.”

Lando Norris qualified fourth, beating Charles Leclerc to the second row of the grid after the second Ferrari driver made a mistake at Turn 12 that spoilt his last lap.

Home hero Oscar Piastri had consistently been the faster McLaren driver until Q3, when the Australian reported suspected floor damage. He qualified sixth and 0.257s behind teammate Norris.

George Russell heads the fourth row ahead of an excellent Yuki Tsunoda, who made his second consecutive Q3 appearance and came within 0.064s of the Mercedes.

Aston Martin teammates struggled in Q3, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso qualifying a distant ninth and 10th and more than a second off the pace.

Lewis Hamilton was a shock elimination in 11th, continuing a difficult weekend thus far for Mercedes. The Briton, who has a record eight pole positions in Melbourne, missed out on a Q3 berth by just 0.059s, though he was 0.169s behind the next non-Mercedes car, with Russell having just snuck through in 10th.

Alex Albon used his new soft tires early in Q2 to avoid traffic to qualify a commendable 12th ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who made Q2 despite brushing the wall and picking up a rear-left puncture in Q1.

Nico Hulkenberg will line up 16th for Haas ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who will be investigated after the session for crossing the pit exit line.

Daniel Ricciardo was bound for 12th place with his final flying lap, but the Australian ran wide exiting Turn 4 approaching Turn 5, for which his best time was deleted. His fallback lap dumped him to 18th ahead of only Zhou Guanyu, whose session was compromised when his front wing failed after running wide over the curbs.

Logan Sargeant did not qualify, having had his chassis commandeered by teammate Alex Albon on Friday night due to a lack of spares at Williams.

Story originally appeared on Racer