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

Verstappen Australian GP Pole – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen stormed to a record-lap breaking pole position at the Australian GP as Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified second and third respectively. The other RB19 entry of Sergio Perez slid-off and was eliminated in Q1.

 

 

In Q3, following a band of showers that hit the Albert Park Street Circuit just before the 60-minute session getting underway and with the red C4 side-walled softs holding on for three tours, but needing multiple warm-up laps to be at their optimal, the capacity-Melbourne crowd was treated to a sensational session.

 

After being fuelled to run for huge amounts of laps in Q1 & Q3, most of the runners in the final segment opted for to new tyre stints of five tours, with two flying laps.

 

Verstappen lead the way throughout but reported to his team possible problems with his RB19’s racer’s battery and transmission where he posted a solid 1:16.732 to grab pole position with a few seconds remaining.

 

This shuffled down Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who was knocked down to fourth place by the Mercedes duo of Russell and Hamilton with their last improvements.

 

The younger Briton posted a 1:16.968, the only driver like Verstappen to break into the 1:16 barrier, with his Mercedes team-mate slightly off after battling with Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg through the final sequence of corners on their final warm-up tours.

 

Behind Alonso, was his Spanish-compatriot Carlos Sainz taking fifth for Ferrari, with Lance Stroll sixth in the other Aston Martin AMR23 entry and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc seventh in the SF-23 entry.

 

Leclerc posted his best effort well before the flag was waved to end the session in Q3 and with enough time left to complete a final hot-lap and although he set a personal best, a 1:17.369, the Monegasque driver could not move ahead.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon produced the Grove based-squad’s best qualifying of the 2023 campaign – taking eighth and ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who was ninth and the aforementioned Hulkenberg who rounded out the top ten.

 

In the second qualifying stage, the second Alpine A523 entry of Esteban Ocon, only missed Q3 by a whisker, 0.007 seconds off after being knocked out by Albon.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda qualified in 12^th place and ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who took 13^th.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries were the slowest of the Q2 runners in 14^th and 15^th respectively.

 

In the opening segment, it was a horror-day for Mexican Sergio Perez, who locked up his Red Bull RB19 racer into the tight, turn three right hand corner on his initial flying tour and slipped straight off the track and into the gravel trap, which he also visited in in FP1 and FP3.

 

Perez skid across the gravel, but as he turned right and tried to get his way out, the Mexican became stuck at the edge next to the muddy surface road close to the barriers, where the Red Bull driver was furious, he had suffered the “same issue” he had over the race weekend.

 

This is possibly referring to the braking issue Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner was alluding to saying both charges were grappling with earlier on.

 

After the eight-minute red flag suspension, Q1 continued, with the field fuelled to run throughout the session.

 

Eliminated alongside Perez was home-favourite and McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, who posted a personal best on his last hot-lap but was not enough to eclipse Tsunoda ahead.

 

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas were 17^th and 19^th respectively as Williams Racing’s Logan Sargent split the pairing.

 

Sargeant suffered a spin at the beginning of Q1 when he dipped his right-wheels on the still wet exit of the last corner, and he pirouetted around and darting back into the pits.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2023 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1143/australia/qualifying.html.

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2023 Australian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

 

 

2023 Australian GP Pole – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing-RBPT Honda, RB19, 1:16.732:

“I think the last run was very good, the whole weekend has been tough to get the tyres in the right window. Very happy to be on pole, already looking forward to tomorrow. I think we have a good race car, but it is tricky on the tyres, so going to be an interesting race for sure.”

 

2^nd Place – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W14, 1:16.958:

“We weren’t expecting that, that’s for sure! What a session for us. The car felt alive, and to be honest I’m disappointed I didn’t get pole as the car felt awesome. We’ll take it, excited for tomorrow, very, very happy to be lining up P2.”

 

3^rd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W14, 1:17.104:

“I’m so happy with this! This is a totally unexpected – just really proud of the team. It’s a dream for us, to be this close to the Red Bull is incredible. We hope to give them a run for their money!”

 

In the earlier FP3 session, it was reigning world champion Verstappen on top for Red Bull with Aston Martin’s Alonso second, Alpine pairing Ocon and Gasly third and fifth places respectively as Mercedes’ Russell split the Frenchman. You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1143/australia/practice-3.html.

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#F1 #AusGP FP2 & FP1 Round-up: @alo_oficial tops damp FP2 & @Max33Verstappen quickest in FP1.

#F1 @Rolex #AustralianGP 2023 Preview. @ausgp #Formula1 #AustralianGrandPrix