Verstappen keeps Mercedes at bay in exciting 2023 Australian GP qualifying

“Car felt alive, the lap at the end was right on the limit and I’ve got to be honest, I was a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get pole position.

“It’s one of those things, how your expectations changed so quickly in this sport. We probably would have been happy with a top four / top five yesterday, but the car felt awesome, and it goes to show we’ve definitely got potential with more still to come.”

Hamilton was similar in his pleasantly surprised reaction to how things played out.

“This is totally unexpected,” he said. “For us to be up on the two front rows is honestly a dream for us. We’re all working as hard as we can to get right back up the front and so to be this close to the Red Bull is honestly it’s incredible.

“We’re hoping for a day like the first year in 2007 in Turn 1 [that] here would be awesome [when Hamilton leapt from third to second at the start].”

Verstappen looked assured in Q1 by topping the timesheets with a 1min 17.384sec but will be the lone Milton Keynes car starting up-front after Sergio Perez dumped his RB18 into the gravel early on in the session. .

The Mexican blamed “the same “****ing problem again” on the radio as he struggled to get the car slowed on corner entry, whilst 16th-placed Oscar Piastri was also eliminated after missing out on Q2 by 0.04sec.

Joining the pair out in Q1 was Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant and Valtteri Bottas in an extremely disappointing session for Alfa Romeo.

A real scrap developed for the final top-10 place in Q2, with the Williams of Albon, both Alpines and Lando Norris squabbling over entry into Q3.

It was the mightily impressive Grove car of Albon who went through, with Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, the beleaguered McLaren of Norris, Kevin Magnussen and Nyck De Vries eliminated.

All cars rushed out in Q3 as the threat of rain loomed, with all the top teams trading times.

Verstappen looked to be on the back foot in Q3 as the excitement built – Alonso was initially fastest on a 1min 17.303sec, before the crowd erupted as Hamilton nicked a tenth off the Spaniard to top the timing screens.

With both Mercedes, Ferraris and Alonso going faster than him at first, Verstappen’s qualifying session briefly looked in jeopardy, but the Dutchman just about weathered a scruffy lap to go quickest by 0.008sec on his second run.

Sainz was informed of rain in the last 3-4 minutes as all drivers hurried to fit in as many fast laps as possible.

With the dark clouds moving in, Verstappen then showed the field just how much pace he had, by extending his advantage by a stunning half a second.

Russell then impressed by setting a time a 0.25sec off, with Hamilton a further 0.15sec back in his first top-six starting position of the season. Alonso, hustling his AMR23 as has become customary this season, was 0.4sec slower than Verstappen in fourth. The two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc were split by Stroll.

“Not easy to get the tyres in the window,” commented Verstappen afterwards while an elated Russell said “I thought our car was a second off the pace?!”

“We just got it together,” explained Mercedes boss Toto Wolff afterwards. “Over the weekend we just grind away with putting performance on the car in terms of the right mechanical setup, but also operational in terms of knowing what laps you needed to do on build-up and warm-up as well.”

2023 Australian Grand Prix qualifying results