Australian GP 2024
MARCH 23, 2024
Qualifying Report - Verstappen takes third pole
© Red Bull
By Peter Habicht
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his third pole this season and 35th career pole for with a 1:15.915s lap in Melbourne, besting the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz who mounted a late charge in Q3 with a 1:16.185s lap while still feeling the effects from his recent surgery. Afterwards, Sainz shared: “Its been a tough couple of weeks … a lot of days in bed waiting for this moment to see if I could be here today … to make to this weekend and obviously to put it on the front row leading through qualifying I was almost not believing it, especially after how tough its been.”
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez pushed his way up to third, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Sainz teammate Charles Leclerc as hometown hero Oscar Piastri took sixth ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell. Team RB’s Yuki Tsunoda drove to out qualify the Aston Martins of Lawrence Stroll and Fernando Alonso after knocking out Lewis Hamilton late in Q2, making it the first time since 2010 the Briton failed to make the top ten at Albert Park.
Just behind Hamilton in 12th, Alex Albon did well to put himself in a points paying position tomorrow for Williams as their solo driver competing in Australia following the sacrifice of teammate Logan Sergeant’s chassis for Albon’s use the rest of the weekend.
Valtteri Bottas will start from 13th on the grid, out qualifying his teammate Guanyu Zhou who will start from the back of the grid. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen will start next to the Finnish driver and ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and teammate Nico Hulkenberg. Pierre Gasly was 17th fastest after the local favorite Daniel Ricciardo appeared to just make it out of Q1 but was then relegated to 18th after his fastest lap exceeded track limits at turn five.
Team RB has planned updates over the next two races but Ricciardo’s still working on getting the most out of the car. Afterwards he said: “The lap was all I had and we’re still slower . . . the team’s put a lot of effort in since Saudi [Arabia] to fix some things we saw, adjusted the car and put on some new parts here and there . . . it looked better but [I’m] still a bit skeptical.”
The Australian Grand Prix will start tomorrow at 3pm.