Verstappen, the fastest in Melbourne / Photo: AFP
The reigning Formula 1 world champion, the Dutchman Max Verstappen, achieved today the best qualifying time for the Australian Grand Prix and his teammate from the Red Bull team, the Mexican Sergio “Checo” PĂ©rez, was relegated to last place by a problem in the braking system.
Verstappen, winner of the first race of the year in Bahrain, will start at the front harassed by the Mercedes of the British George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, located in second and third place on the grid.
The Spaniards Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) occupied the fourth and fifth starting places in Melbourne, where Verstappen signed the 22nd pole position of his history and second of the current season.
A first pole Down Under for @Max33Verstappen đ#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/5Uq78LZAx2
â Formula 1 (@F1) April 1, 2023
The Dutchman, leader of the 2023 World Championship with a point advantage over PĂ©rez, will have an unbeatable opportunity to widen the gap with the Mexican, frustrated by an unreliable car in Australia.
The Guadalajara driver experienced the same problems in qualifying as in the third practice session on a wet track after the rain in the Formula 2 Sprint.
His car was stopped in the gravel of turn 3 of the Albert Park circuit and caused the first red tray of the “qualy”, without the possibility of completing any fast lap, the official website of the category reported.
PĂ©rez was the winner of the last Saudi Arabian GP and this morning he will have to come back from the bottom to score points in Oceania.
Between sixth and tenth place will come the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), the Thai Alexander Albon (Williams), the Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and the German Nico HĂŒlkenberg (Haas).
Further behind will be the French Esteban Ocon (Alpine), the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), the British Lando Norris (McLaren), the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas), the Dutch Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri), the Australian Oscar Piastri ( McLaren), the Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo), the American Logan Sargeant (Williams) and the Finnish Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), in the penultimate place.
Tasty starting grid đ#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/LOSz7ucTuj
â Formula 1 (@F1) April 1, 2023
The Australian GP will begin at 2:00 p.m. and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports, ESPN 2 and the Star+ platform.
