Even when Max Verstappen fumbled — as much as Max Verstappen can ever fumble — pole position always seemed comfortably within his reach, and so it proved at the Australian Grand Prix.
On an overcast and drizzly Saturday Verstappen dared to get up the hopes for the chasing frontrunning pack that top spot on the grid was up for grabs when a minor but uncharacteristic error left him sixth on the provisional grid and without enough time to properly prepare his tyres for a final run.
Could a Mercedes take pole? Or Fernando Alonso for Aston Martin?
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Verstappen wasn’t having any of it.
With his tyres only roughly in the operating window, he punched in a lap good enough to best the rest of them, albeit with a smaller than usual margin.
It was his first pole in Melbourne and Red Bull Racing’s first top qualifying result since Sebastian Vettel started first in 2013.
But it was a day of mixed emotions for the team, with Sergio Perez toiling with technical trouble that left him last on the grid and facing an uphill struggle to score more than just minor points.
Home hero Oscar Piastri couldn’t outperform his McLaren machinery, and a crucial mistake left him knocked out in Q1 — McLaren has had one car qualify in the bottom five at all three races so far this season.
And up the front there’s an unlikely victory challenge brewing as Mercedes enjoys an unexpected upturn in form.
McLAREN WAIT FOR NEW CAR CONTINUES AFTER UNDERWHELMING QUALIFYING
Oscar Piastri arrived at his home grand prix with at least a little wind in his sails from his strong qualifying effort at the previous race in Saudi Arabia, but his McLaren car wasn’t up to the task in tricky conditions at Albert Park, with neither driver cracking the top 10.
Worse, Piastri was knocked out in Q1, just missing the cut by 0.046 seconds. He’ll line up 16th, three places behind the teammate Lando Norris in 13th.
“Not quite the session I wanted, obviously,” Piastri said. “We’ve said the whole season how incredibly tight it is, especially with the teams around us that we‘re fighting at the moment.
“I went and had a look and really it was one corner where I lost all of my time.
“A shame. Overall, it’s been a good weekend and nice experience so far, but just one corner was where it all went away today.”
The corner in question is the slow right-handed turn 11 at the end of the last DRS zone — most of the 0.274-second deficit to Norris in Q1 was found there.
Cold tyres cost Piastri Q2 berth? | 00:48
But the fact Lando ended up only three places up the road speaks to McLaren’s difficulties more than the performance of either driver. Norris admitted just three extra places required “a little bit of overdriving”.
“I’m not quite finding the rhythm that I want and the knowledge of every corner where the limit exactly is,” he said.
“I wouldn’t say I’m driving at the level I feel like I should or I hold myself to. That and the mixture of also being a tricky car to drive, one that is easy to go over the limit of anyway.”
Team principal Andrea Stella exonerated both his charges of blame, saying the car, not the drivers, was behind the small errors both made trying to haul the MCL60 further up the grid than it belongs.
“I would say the car was also trickier to drive more difficult to put clean laps together,” Stella said. “That’s why you hear from Oscar and Lando saying that they left some time here and there.
“I think that‘s ultimately not their responsibility; they pushed the car, but the car was tricky, especially braking, so we definitely have quite a lot of work to do — but this is in line with what we knew already.”
With so little practice running owing to the weather, neither driver was willing to make a race prediction.
“I don’t think anyone really got enough long runs in, to be honest,” Piastri said. “I think our pace was reasonable — nothing different, good or bad, compared to the last two races. So we’ll see.”
McLaren’s race pace in the last two races hasn’t been good enough for points, so Piastri fans should keep expectations in check for the grand prix.
Doohan spins out in horror home debut | 00:54
SERGIO PEREZ’S REALLY BAD, TERRIBLE DAY
Things were bittersweet in the Red Bull Racing garages after qualifying. While there was jubilation for Verstappen, Perez was left deeply frustrated by a car problem that deprived him of the chance to build his Saudi Arabian momentum.
He was unhappy with the car on Friday, and changes to his RB19 were still being made as late as 20 minutes into FP3, when mechanics were spotted working on the rear of his car.
Whatever they did didn’t appear to be enough, with Perez running off the track several times in the hour.
But things got worse in qualifying, when on his first push lap he locked up at turn 3 and beached his car in the gravel.
He’ll start the race from dead last, 20th on the grid.
“It was really bad,” he told Sky Sports. “It was a terrible day.
“Already in FP3 we had this issue. We thought we fixed it but obviously we didn’t.
“I don’t want to go too much into detail, I don’t think it is worth it for us. We have to work together as a team and make sure we overcome this problem and fix it tomorrow.”
Perez suggested the problem was related to the brakes, saying that the brake balance moved unexpectedly and dramatically forward as soon as he hit the left pedal.
Formula 1 cars brake by wire, meaning braking pressure is applied electronically based on pedal position rather than directly. The problem is therefore less likely to be a mechanical issue.
But whatever the cause, it’s the second week in a row that a technical problem has hampered one of the Red Bull Racing drivers in the crucial grid-setting hour.
“Minimising the damage will be really important,” Perez said, declining to set a target finishing position. “So I really hope tomorrow come race day we are able to fix it, because otherwise it will be very difficult to race like this.”
But none of the top three qualifiers gave his recovery much of a chance.
“Not for me,” Verstappen said when asked if he thought his teammate could be a factor in the podium battle, with both Russell and Hamilton agreeing that passing is too difficult around Albert Park for Perez to score big points on Sunday.
‘Sergio’s Saturday shocker continues!’ | 01:27
MERCEDES CONTINUES ITS UNPREDICTABLY DECENT FORM
“I‘m a little bit surprised. Maybe they are also a little bit surprised!” Verstappen said of being flanked by both Mercedes drivers in the post-qualifying press conference. Neither Russell nor Hamilton contradicted him.
Mercedes’s form has been unreadable this season. The car looked so bad in Bahrain that the team decided to throw the whole concept in the bin. Then it was more competitive in Saudi Arabia, albeit still behind Fernando Alonso.
But in Melbourne the W14 looks like Red Bull Racing’s closest competition — a pleasant surprise for the team.
“It is a surprise, there‘s no doubt about it,” said Russell, who will line up alongside Verstappen on the front row. “I think we’re learning more and more about this car. We know it’s not where we want it to be, but it’s probably evolved just with the set-up.
“The pace on that final lap was quite surprising. I’m really pleased to be just two and a half tenths off when we were a second off on other occasions.”
There are of course some caveats here. Verstappen was out of sequence in Q3 after making a mistake with his first lap, which meant he didn’t have time to properly warm up his tyres for his final flying lap. His margin of 0.236 seconds is less than it ought to have been.
But Mercedes is nonetheless buoyed. With a two-to-one advantage on track, the team is aiming for an unlikely first victory of the season.
“We‘ve got to go for it, haven’t we?” Russell said. “We’ve got to go for a win.
“I think it’s difficult to overtake around this circuit, so the start, lap one, is going to be vital.”
Hamilton was remaining realistic about Red Bull Racing’s pace, but even he was willing to buy into the dream.
“We have to expect they‘re going to be a quarter of a second, half a second, at least, quicker than us,” he said. “But maybe in the tow, maybe we can just about hold on; maybe the fact that there’s two of us and only one Red Bull, maybe with strategy, maybe we can apply some pressure to them.
“I really hope that tomorrow we can somehow hold on to him. He might pull away into the distance like he has done in the past, but we‘ll give it our best shot.”
Hamilton opens up on life in Formula 1 | 18:51
FERRARI COUNTS THE COST OF MISSED CHANCES
Despite four different drivers looking like credible pole challengers late in Q3, Ferrari wasn’t able to take advantage of the freneticism.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc qualified an underwhelming fifth and seventh, 0.538 seconds and 0.637 seconds off the pace respectively.
At first glance it appeared to be confirmation of the Italian team’s slide towards the back of the frontrunning pack, with Sainz only just holding off Lance Stroll in the second Aston.
But in reality it appears to be confirmation of that other great Ferrari disappointment of chronic disorganisation, with both drivers complaining that better results were on the table with better execution from the pit wall.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t prove [our improved pace] today because I lost a couple of tenths in sector one in that final lap,” Sainz said. “That cost me a top three.
“We missed it due to a very poor preparation lap. They told me there were people coming on a fast lap. Some of them were, some not. I cooled down the tyres and it cost me a lot in turn one.”
Meanwhile, Leclerc’s problem was Sainz — specifically where he’d been positioned on track, directly in front of him as he was attempting his final fast lap.
“I don’t know what happened in the second run of Q3, whether it was a miscommunication with Carlos or whatever, but I found myself behind him for the whole first sector, which wasn’t great,” he said. “I don’t know. We’ll speak at the debrief about that to try and improve those situations.
“We could have optimised it by having better communication.”
Ricciardo opens up on F1 future | 10:15
Leclerc also admitted that he didn’t get the most from his car earlier in qualifying.
But it at least raises the prospect of the team being competitive enough to be in the podium mix on Sunday, with both drivers convinced there’s plenty more pace to come.
“[I feel] reasonably comfortable,” Sainz said. “I think we’ve done some good progress with my feeling with the car. We’ve changed quite a lot the set-up up and down from yesterday, trying to improve it mainly from the race, but actually the changes have made me feel a bit better also over one lap.
“I hope that I can keep the pace of the Astons and Mercedes and fight them.”