Updated:
Apr 1, 2023 8:27 am
An early start to qualifying for the UK residents as qualifying kicked off at 6am (BST). Australia with its frequent changeable weather threat, meant that throughout qualifying, the chance of rain was high. In FP2 the rain appeared for the first time this season, we saw Fernando Alonso topped that session for Aston Martin, but spoke after suggesting that he WOULDN’T be doing a rain dance for Saturday or Sunday.
Nevertheless, rain nearly made an appearance in qualifying as towards the end we were only a minute or two away from it arriving.
Max Verstappen secured his first pole position in Australia finishing 0.236 tenths ahead of second place, George Russell. A nervy final lap secured pole as before the final fun the gap between P1 and P3 was just 0.041 seconds!! Unbelievably close but a joy to watch.
Red Bull start tomorrow’s race first and last as Sergio Perez crashed out in Q1. He suffered a big lock up and got stuck in the gravel trap, effectively meaning his Saturday was over.
It’s a big shame for Checo after seeing his serious pace in Saudi Arabia. His last race really put out a statement to Red Bull suggesting that he does have the ability to fight for a championship and can compete against Max. Furthermore, Max has already identified Perez as his “rival” for this year’s championship. Perhaps Red Bull may not be as dominant later on in the season but for now they look extremely quick.
Sergio will have a lot of work to get done tomorrow, Max fought back from P15 last time out after having a reliability issue… so it will be interesting how well Perez will deal with the situation he has found himself in.
Darth Toto Returns As Mercedes Flourish
Mercedes after qualifying today secured P2 and P3. George Russell starts on the front row ahead of Hamilton, and Lewis is alongside Fernando Alonso on the second row.
Finally a performance Mercedes has been waiting a while for and you can see the relief of everyone on the team. The smiles of Lewis and Toto emphasise how happy they are with the result achieved on Saturday. It shows a serious step forward and potentially depending on their race pace we could see them fighting the Red Bulls in the near future.
Hamilton (P3) said after qualifying “Be hoping for a day like the first year, 2007, turn 1 here, that would be awesome!”. He references the race on his debut where he would have a double overtake going into Turn 1. I’m sure Lewis will see the potential for tomorrow and understand that a good result could be there for the taking.
Anything can happen in Australia so something could be on the cards for anyone.
Toto has seemed to be happy so far this week with the results of Mercedes, the results on Saturday really would’ve gotten him in the spirit and excited for the race on Sunday.
Red Bull against Mercedes again? When have we seen this before! But don’t count out the Aston Martin’s, we could hopefully see a 3 team fight for the win, how much we’d all love to see that.
Alex Albon Leading Williams Forward
Alex Albon qualified P8 for Williams this Saturday and looks ahead to hopefully secure points tomorrow. After a DNF last time out in Saudi Arabia, he will be even more motivated to score for Williams on Sunday.
Despite Alex not having red hair anymore, perhaps the blonde can bring him some luck this time.
Williams look to add on to their measly 1 point they have scored so far this season, aiming to push forward and finish as high as they can do.
Albon’s car looked rapid in Sector 2 and for the majority of laps, he was quicker than everyone in Sector 2 but couldn’t get much more out of the car to push even higher. But for Williams at this stage of the season, having qualified P8 is a sign of hope and a promising look into the future.
Hopefully disappointment doesn’t appear for Williams like it did in Saudi Arabia, the car looked promising their but with an Albon DNF and a struggling Logan Sargeant they weren’t able to score points.
I’m sure all fans are looking forward to the race on Sunday as qualifying has indicated we will have a good race on our hands, let’s see what happens when 5 red lights go out…
