Max Verstappen will start from pole position for the 2023 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne after setting a time of 1:16.732 in the final seconds of qualifying, 0.236s ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.
Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso will complete the second row of the grid while Sergio Perez will start from the back of the grid after a dramatic exit from the session in Q1.
With a threat of rain in the final minutes of Q3, the teams were eager to set their fastest laps as early as possible.
READ MORE: F1 2023 Australian GP – Session Results
Verstappen had competition for pole position from Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari who had all displaced each other at the top spot on the timing screen in the first half of the session.
As the final five minutes passed, Verstappen reclaimed the fastest time ahead of Hamilton by just 0.009s.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished the session fifth fastest followed by Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg, who completed the top 10.
Meanwhile, Sergio Perez made a shock exit in Q1 after he went straight on, locking up at Turn 3, and ending the session in the gravel trap. This brought out the red flag while the RB19 was recovered.
“That was the same f****** issue again,” Perez said over the radio.
There was also early trouble for Logan Sargeant in Q1, who locked up and spun off the kerb through the penultimate corner – luckily he was able to divert into the pits to change tyres.
When the session resumed, Hulkenberg occupied the top of the timing screen followed by Albon and Magnussen but there wasn’t a representative time to be seen yet.
Verstappen was the first out on track when the stoppage came to an end and immediately went fastest by over three-tenths on his first run.
It was obvious that it was a more gradual process to get the tyres into the correct window for the drivers, and with five minutes of Q1 remaining, lap times were beginning to tumble with Alonso and Verstappen exchanging the fastest times at the top.
Meanwhile, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were battling to keep out of the elimination zone while Piastri reported set-up issues back to the team over the radio.
It was all to play for as the checkered flag flew at the end of Q1, with a number of the drivers improving on their fastest times.
Norris had set the 12th fastest time while his teammate was knocked out in Q1 along with Zhou Guanyu, Sargeant, Bottas, along with Perez.
Ferrari appeared to be more competitive at the start of Q2. Leclerc was able to set the fastest time as Q2 approached ten minutes remaining – a time which was quickly beaten by Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Norris ran into some issues as he made a trip into the gravel trap at Turn 3 but he was able to make it out and carry on running after a change of tyres.
Alonso was once again marching the pace of Leclerc while the two AlphaTauri’s struggled to make it into the top 10.
Norris was then able to scrape into the top ten but was almost immediately demoted to 12th as both Pierre Gasly and Albon improved.
In the final minutes, the midfield times came alive once again. Gasly and Hulkenberg leapt into the top-five fastest. Tsunoda improved to 12th fastest.
Norris was only able to improve to 13th fastest, allowing Albon to progress onto Q3. Esteban Ocon was just 0.007s off Albon’s time as the Alpine driver ran into traffic.
Keyword: Verstappen takes Melbourne pole ahead of Russell