Verstappen takes pole position for the 20th time in his career! Pérez starts from last place. How did qualifying in the Australian GP go?

Formula 1 had its third qualifying session of the 2023 season on the schedule today, Saturday 1 April. The queen of motorsport moved from the Middle East to the other side of the world in Melbourne, Australia. Max Verstappen took pole position at the city’s Albert Park circuit. Mercedes made a significant leap forward with second and third place. Pérez will start from last place after an accident in the first part of qualifying.

Q1

Only nine drivers managed to set a fast time before red flags had to be displayed on the track. Checo Pérez locked his wheels before turn three and then slid off the track into the gravel. The Mexican had already complained about the balance of the car during practice, attributing his accident to the same problem on radio communication with the team.

After the restart of qualifying, the cautious approach of all the drivers was evident as they did not manage to complete a single lap. After the first attempts by all drivers, Alex Albon was in second position just 8 hundredths behind Max Verstappen.

Haas was doing well. The American team was able to keep pace with Ferrari and dragged both of its cars through to the second qualifying session without any major problems.

A Saturday that Alfa Romeo will want to forget quickly. Valtteri Bottas couldn’t come close to any of the other drivers with his times, and will line up on the last row for the start. Zhou Kuan-yu didn’t impress either. His time of 1:18.540 was only good enough for 17th place.

Logan Sargeant also said goodbye to qualifying early. The Williams rookie lost 6 tenths of a second to his teammate.

Oscar Piastri was the best of the non-advancers. Just two weeks after finishing ninth in qualifying in Jeddah, he has to settle for 16th on the grid at his home Grand Prix.

Q2

With the second qualifying session, the trend that was seen in previous Grands Prix returned. Verstappen closely followed by Alonso and a huge gap to third place.

It was a very close battle before the last few attempts around the final grid positions. There was only a three-hundredths gap between eighth-placed Hamilton and 11th-placed Gasly.

In this duel, it was not the winner but the loser that was important. That was Esteban Ocon, who narrowly missed a last chance for a quick attempt, finishing 7 thousandths behind tenth-placed Albon.

Both AlphaTauri riders dropped out of the second qualifying session. Júki Cunoda will line up on the grid in 12th place. Nyck de Vries will take 15th place.

Kevin Magnussen’s time was certainly a disappointment, the Danish driver lost 7 tenths to his teammate Hülkenberg and only took 14th place.

Mclaren’s woes continue. Lando Norris was unable to keep pace with the rest of the midfield in Q2 and finished 13th.

Q3

The last part of qualifying brought concerns about rain, which was due to start pelting the track 4 minutes before the chequered flag was displayed.

This made it extremely important for teams to set fast times early, which is unusual for qualifying. The opening attempts didn’t go ideally for Verstappen, who did take provisional first place, but just 9 thousandths behind him Lewis Hamilton was grinding his teeth for pole position.

Thanks to the absence of the expected rain at the end of qualifying, the Dutch driver’s last attempt was much better. A time of 1:16.732 was enough for the double champion to claim his second pole position of the season and the 20th of his career.

After Verstappen’s surprise performance, the Mercedes monoblocs lined up behind him. George Russell was the only driver other than Verstappen to set a time under 1:17. Hamilton was third, one tenth down.

I’m sure Charles Leclerc will be disappointed with his performance. He will be the last of the top 4 teams to start with his SF-23, with the exception of Perez who will start from last place.

Alex Albon flew like a rocket through the second sector. He thus beat the rest of the midfield at Williams and will attack for important points from eighth place in Sunday’s race.

You can see the overall top 10 standings in the post below.

Sources: F1TV, Twitter