F1 qualifying results as Russell beats Hamilton and Verstappen on pole

Max Verstappen was able to clinch pole position for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix with a predictably strong performance in Saturday’s qualifying session. The Dutchman easily managed to keep the likes of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton at arm’s length with a lap time of 1:16.372, which put him two-tenths clear of second-placed George Russell. But it was Mercedes who caused a surprise in Melbourne by securing P2 and P3 on the starting grid.

It was not all plain sailing for Red Bull, either, as Sergio Perez was forced to end his session after only a few minutes of Q1 due to a massive lock-up into Turn Three. The Mexican driver was unable to stop himself from beaching his car in the gravel, which brought out the red flags and gave Red Bull some extra food for thought in terms of their strategic approach ahead of Sunday’s race.

Perez was clearly frustrated and was quick to blame the incident on his car rather than his own mistake as he shouted over the radio: “We need to solve that issue man. It was the same f****** issue again.”

It was a surprisingly good qualifying session for Mercedes as Russell managed to put himself on the front row thanks to a scintillating lap at the end of Q3, with Hamilton set to line up just behind his Silver Arrows team-mate in third place.

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“This is totally unexpected, really proud of the team,” said Hamilton. “George did an amazing job there today so for us to be up on the front two rows in honestly a dream for us.

“We are all working as hard as we can to get right back up to the front so to be this close to Red Bull is incredible. Hopefully tomorrow we can give them a run for their money and we hope the weather is good.

“I am super grateful for this position and I am just going to work as hard as I can tomorrow. [My goal] is to get to first, I am going to try and see and I will be hoping like my first day here 2007, Turn One. I don’t know if anybody remembers but hopefully we can do that.”

Meanwhile, it was a somewhat frustrating day for Alonso, who would have been hoping to rival Verstappen for pole but was ultimately forced to settle for fourth place despite showing plenty of promise in all three practice sessions. His compatriot Carlos Sainz crossed the line in fifth position for Ferrari, with Lance Stroll coming home in sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg to round off the top 10.

Qualifying results – 1. Verstappen, 2. Russell, 3. Hamilton, 4. Alonso, 5. Sainz, 6. Stroll, 7. Leclerc, 8. Albon, 9. Gasly, 10. Hulkenberg, 11. Ocon, 12. Tsunoda, 13. Norris, 14. Magnussen, 15. De Vries, 16. Piastri, 17. Zhou, 18. Sargeant, 19. Bottas, 20. Perez.