Max Verstappen secured pole position for the Australian Grand Prix after seeing off a strong challenge from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in Melbourne.
For a long time, Fernando Alonso looked like he would be the biggest threat to the Dutchman in qualifying. But the two Mercedes drivers put aside their struggles in the early weeks of this new Formula 1 season to mount a stern challenge for pole at Albert Park.
Russell outqualified his team-mate Hamilton for a third-straight race, but neither of them could topple Verstappen who had a shaky session overall but still did enough to go fastest. His Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez, however, will start the race at the opposite end of the grid.
Perez's qualifying lasted for just a few seconds after a mistake early on his first flying lap. The Mexican lost control of his Red Bull and beached it in a gravel trap without having set a time – prompting an angry radio message.
So the Mexican will share the back row of the grid for Sunday's race with Valtteri Bottas. The Finn set the slowest time of everyone in Q1 and blamed the traffic he came across on the track when he was told about his position over the radio.
Alfa Romeo team-mate Zhou Guanyu also went out of the session early by qualifying 17th, one place ahead of Logan Sargeant. Starting 16th will be hometown hero Oscar Piastri, much to the disappointment of the Australian fans gathered at Albert Park.
In Q2, both AlphaTauris were not quick enough to make it through to the final part of the session. And Lando Norris could only manage 13th fastest, ahead of Kevin Magnussen, as McLaren's woes at the start of this new season continued.
Esteban Ocon was very unlucky to miss out on Q3 by just seven thousandths of a second, edged out by Alex Albon who was having a very impressive qualifying. The British-Thai racer was very quick across the first two parts of the session, which bodes well for Williams ahead of Sunday's race.
In Q3, Verstappen saw off the challenge from Russell and Hamilton, who all qualified ahead of Alonso in fourth. Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll will share the third row with Charles Leclerc only seventh in what was a disappointing session for Ferrari.
Albon managed to go eighth quickest ahead of Pierre Gasly in ninth and Nico Hulkenberg also on the fifth row – perhaps a slightly disappointing end result for the German who was showing lightning pace throughout qualifying.
Full F1 2023 Australian Grand Prix qualifying result
- Max Verstappen – Red Bull
- George Russell – Mercedes
- Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
- Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin
- Carlos Sainz – Ferrari
- Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
- Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
- Alex Albon – Williams
- Pierre Gasly – Alpine
- Nico Hulkenberg – Haas
- Esteban Ocon – Alpine
- Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri
- Lando Norris – McLaren
- Kevin Magnussen – Haas
- Nyck de Vries – AlphaTauri
- Oscar Piastri – McLaren
- Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo
- Logan Sargeant – Williams
- Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo
- Sergio Perez – Red Bull
