#AusGP Qualifying: @Max33Verstappen storms to #AustralianGP pole. #F1 #F1DownUnder

Verstappen Australian GP Pole – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen stormed to his 34^th-career pole position in qualifying for tomorrow’s Australian GP.

Verstappen had not topped a single session all weekend so far but got into the rhythm throughout the qualifying session and found a quarter of a second advantage at the very end to deny Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz a chance at pole.

Sainz was quickest in both Q1 and Q2 and looked set to challenge for pole on his return to the sport after missing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to appendicitis but found a more stronger challenge from Verstappen in the top-ten shootout.

In the initial flyers, Verstappen posted a 1:16.048, which neither of the Ferrari duo could topple, and followed up with a solid 1:15.915 to set a solid benchmark.

Although Sainz found pace over Verstappen in sector one, the Dutchman was unable to exploit Ferrari’s pace in sector three and had to settle for second place on the grid.

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez took third place (but has been relegated to sixth due to impeding Hulkenberg in Q1), less than half-a-tenth clear from McLaren’s Lando Norris as the Briton looked to demonstrate his dominance over home favourite and team-mate Oscar Piastri, the Australian had been impressive throughout all the sessions at his home Grand Prix.

The McLaren pairing were split by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who suffered a slide out of turn 12 and aborted his final flyer of the session to settle for fourth on the grid – ending the Monegasque drivers’ streak of front-row starts.

Mercedes’ George Russell was the sole F1 W15 entry in the final qualifying stage and placed seventh in the classification and in-front of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda who was eighth and the two Aston Martin’s of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso who rounded out the top ten.

Stroll suffered a snap of oversteer into turn ten, which caused the Canadian to settle for ninth and his team-mate Alonso abandoned his initial flyer after travelling across the turn six gravel trap and could find any gains on his final hot-lap.

In the middle segment, Stroll had demoted Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton into a Q2 exit as the seven-time world champion failed to find any improvements on his final hot-lap of qualifying, which left the Briton on the cusp of elimination.

Tsunoda was able to send Stroll below the line with a solid Q2 flyer, but the latter responded on his final flying tour to reclaim a place in the top ten as Hamilton faltered.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon, who was controversially given team-mate Logan Sargeant’s FW46 entry for the rest of the Grand Prix weekend after crashing his own car in yesterday’s FP1 session, took 12^th place after failing to break out of the bottom five after his last run of the session.

This none-the-less kept the Thai-Briton driver in-front of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, who placed 13^th ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon survived hitting the wall at turn 14 to progress into Q2 but could not go quicker than 15^th having been nearly 0.3 seconds off Magnussen’s effort.

RB’s second entry of Daniel Ricciardo was knocked out in Q1 after losing his best lap of the session due to exceeding track limits in turn five, which promoted Magnussen into a place in Q2.

The Australian had himself up into 12^th with his final flying lap of the opening proceedings, but his invalidated lap time resigned him to an early end and dropped to 18^th.

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team pairing Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg both fell into the bottom four – the elimination zone featuring only a quartet of cars as Sargeant was not competing in the rest of the Grand Prix weekend – but the Dane was safe due to Ricciardo’s drop.

Hulkenberg fell into the elimination zone in a frantic session, which saw him impeded by Perez on his earlier runs but could only settle for 16^th and ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu did not move up the order after his front wing appeared to lose it’s elements and left the Chinese driver unable to progress from Q1.

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2024 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1231/australia/qualifying.html

2024 Australian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2024 Australian GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, 1:15.915:

“A bit unexpected today, but very happy with Q3 – both laps felt very nice. A bit of a tricky weekend so far, [Ferrari] seem very quick in the long runs so that makes tomorrow exciting.”

2^nd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24, 1:16.185:

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks, a lot of days in bed waiting to see if I could be here today. To put it on the front row after leading through qualifying, I was almost not believing it. I was a bit rusty yesterday but I’m feeling good with the car. Not going to lie, not in my most comfortable state when I’m driving out there, but I can get it done.”

3^rd Place – Sergio Perez, #11, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, 1:16.274 (Demoted to sixth due to three-grid placed penalty):

“I think there was a bit more in it, my first sector was not great especially Turn 1. I’m happy, but tomorrow we have a fight on our hands with the Ferraris and the rest of the field as degradation looks very high, so starting position isn’t as important. We’ve changed a bit our strategy tomorrow, let’s see who can survive the most on the degradation side.”

Perez hit with three-place grid penalty for impeding Hulkenberg

Perez Hulkenberg Australian GP Penalty – Red Bull’s Sergio Perez has been hit with a three-grid placed penalty for tomorrow’s Australian GP for impeding Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying.

The incident occurred in the first qualifying segment when Hulkenberg was forced to take avoiding action on his flying tour after encountering the slow moving RB20 entry of Perez – on his out lap – into the penultimate corner.

After reviewing the evidence, the race stewards found the Milton Keynes based-outfit did not give Perez a warning that Hulkenberg was behind until one second before the Haas had arrived, meaning it was too late for the Mexican to avoid impeding.

Thus, Perez was deemed to have unnecessarily impeded Hulkenberg’s flyer and was slapped with a three-grid placed penalty.

Perez originally qualified third, meaning that he will now start sixth on the grid. This will promote the drivers behind including McLaren’s Lando Norris, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and home favourite Oscar Piastri (McLaren) all promoted up a spot.

In the earlier FP3 session, Leclerc pipped Verstappen in the last moments to go fastest by a very narrow 0.020 seconds with Sainz a further 0.077 seconds off his time-topping Ferrari team-mate in third whilst Mercedes pairing of Hamilton and Russell rounded out the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2024 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1231/australia/practice-3.html

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