Max Verstappen secured pole position for the Australian Grand Prix ahead of the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton as Sergio Perez went off early in Q1.
The Red Bull driver took half a second out of his own provisional pole time on his final run in Q3 to secure the top spot on the grid while the Mercedes drivers secured second and third with Fernando Alonso fourth.
Perez will start last on the grid for tomorrow’s race, barring any penalties, after he skidded off track on his first push lap in Q1.
Q1
A brief rain shower less than 20 minutes before the start of qualifying had threatened to affect the opening phase. But all of the cars that waited at the end of the pit lane for the green light to appear queued up on slick tyres. The Williams FW45s of Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant led the field away as Q1 began, while the five teams in the top half of the constructors’ championship opted to remain in the garage.
Kevin Magnussen was the quickest of the initial runners with a 1’19.392, before Albon replaced him with his second consecutive push lap. Albon’s team mate Sargeant briefly brought out the yellow flags by spinning at turn 13 at the end of his flying lap, righting the car and returning to the garage.
Sergio Perez had struggled throughout final practice with braking problems, running off the circuit no fewer than four times. On his first push lap of qualifying, the problem struck again, with worse consequences. He locked up under braking for turn three and skidded off the track into the gravel. Despite his pleas to the marshals to push him, Perez was stranded in the gravel trap, his session over almost before it had started.
The red flags flew so the Red Bull could be recovered. After a delay of eight minutes, the session resumed with just under 12 minutes remaining. Max Verstappen immediately jumped to the top of the times with his first flying lap, while many of his rivals opted to run a tyre preparation lap before pushing flat-out on their second lap.
Albon improved to move up to second place, less than a tenth of a second behind Verstappen, while Carlos Sainz Jnr could not match the Williams and went third in his Ferrari. Fernando Alonso’s first truly representative lap in the Aston Martin was easily quick enough to put him top, but only for a matter of seconds before Verstappen lowered the best time to a 1’17.469.
With five minutes remaining, there was an intense battle in the midfield to determine who would be the four…
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