F1: Verstappen outduels Mercedes drivers to win pole in Melbourne (Update)

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Article has been updated below with comments from Sergio Perez on what caused him to crash out of Q1.

Contrary to what Perez says below, Helmut Marko says there was no technical issues with Checo’s RB19.

“There was a little push from the engine, but [Checo’s issue in qualifying] wasn’t like the practice sessions. At the beginning, it was a bit slippery and unfortunately, he slid out of it.”

Perez missed the first part of Q1 qualifying for repairs on his drive shaft.

The mystery of Red Bull’s drive shaft issues has been solved. A screw on the gearbox side had come loose. It had not been properly tightened during installation and is therefore not a fundamental problem with the shaft.

“They’ve had them in the car at Red Bull since the RB7,” Verstappen revealed.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

With Max Verstappen’s transmission acting up, and his battery losing power, he had to work hard to win pole for the Australian GP but he pulled it off with a lap of 1m16.732s to beat the Mercedes of George Russell by 0.236s.

“I think the last run was very good, the whole weekend has been tough to get the tires in the right window,” said Verstappen – his first pole here in Melbourne.

“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 tires, so going to be an interesting race for sure.”

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

Lewis Hamilton was 3rd in the 2nd Mercedes, 0.372s behind.

“I’m so happy with this! This is a totally unexpected – just really proud of the team,” said a happy Hamilton.

“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!”

Fernando Alonso was 4th for Aston Martin while Carlos Sainz Jr. was the fastest Ferrari to round out the top-5.

Lance Stroll was 6th in the 2nd Aston Martin, beating Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari who wound up only 7th after being on pole here last year.

Alex Albon managed a stellar P8 for Williams to leave Alpine’s Pierre Gasly ninth and Nico Hulkenberg 10th for Haas.

While Max Verstappen will start 1st, his Red Bull Honda teammate will start dead last after dropping out in Q1 and burying his car in the pea gravel.

Perez said the problem related to the brake balance moving “quite far forwards as soon as I was braking”.

“We had a bit of a technical issue from FP3 and we thought we fixed that, but we obviously didn’t,” he said when asked to explain his troubles by Autosport.

“It was very difficult to do anything out there, just braking.

“I became a passenger as soon as I touched the brake.

“It’s something that is moving the brake balance quite far forwards on the braking.

“I just hope that we are able to fix it as a team tomorrow and be able to race and minimize the damage.”

That was a great qualifying session, even if the rain did hold off. From Perez’s gravel trap nightmare, through to his teammate’s dominance, there was drama all the way. And that was the perfect appetizer for the race tomorrow, when strategy is a bit of an unknown.

With practice so disrupted, no one quite knows how these tires will fare under higher fuel loads, and thus what the optimum strategy is. And considering tomorrow is supposed to be slightly warmer, that’s another variable to throw into the mix.

Up front though, can Mercedes really take the fight to Red Bull? They’ll have two cars up there compared to just the lone Bull, and so could try and pull off something with a split strategy. And if last season is anything to go by, they were always far more competitive in the races than on qualifying day.

Tomorrow then, should be epic. Add in a likely disgruntled Alonso from fourth on the grid looking to muscle his way back to the podium, Albon chasing some points for Williams, Hulkenberg trying to keep the midfield at bay and the slight unknown factor of Ferrari in the mix… It should be a great race.

Qualifying Results