2024 F1 Round 3, Australian GP Qualifying: Verstappen Takes Third Straight Pole in 1:15.915, Returning Sainz Second and Tsunoda Eighth

Qualifying for the 2024 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix concluded at Albert Park on the afternoon of 23 March Beijing time. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed pole with a lap of 1:15.915, making it three poles from the opening three rounds. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, returning after surgery, was second, 0.270 seconds behind. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda reached Q3 for the second consecutive round and qualified eighth.

The session took place in dry conditions, with an air temperature of 19°C and a track temperature of 35°C. The form shown in final practice had raised expectations of a multi-car battle separated by hundredths, but Verstappen ultimately established a clear advantage. Sainz was fastest of all in the first sector but could not beat his former team-mate. Sergio Pérez was third, 0.359 seconds behind Verstappen, although a penalty for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in qualifying would drop him three places on the race grid.

Charles Leclerc, one of the pole contenders, abandoned his final flying lap and finished only fifth. McLaren’s Lando Norris took fourth, with team-mate Oscar Piastri sixth; they would start from the second and third rows respectively. Verstappen said afterwards that pole had been somewhat unexpected, but he was very pleased with both Q3 laps. The weekend had felt tricky up to that point, Ferrari’s long-run pace was strong, and he was looking forward to the race.

Tsunoda beat Lewis Hamilton in Q2 to reach Q3, then took eighth ahead of both Aston Martins, whose flying laps did not go to plan. It was his second successive top-ten qualifying result after Saudi Arabia. George Russell had scraped into Q3 in tenth and went on to qualify seventh, 0.064 seconds ahead of Tsunoda. Hamilton was eliminated in Q2 in eleventh, missing Russell’s time by 0.059 seconds.

Fernando Alonso ran into the gravel at Turn 6 on his first Q3 attempt, forcing Aston Martin to inspect the floor in the garage. With no banker lap in place, his final attempt left him tenth, behind team-mate Lance Stroll in ninth. Alexander Albon, driving the chassis taken over from Logan Sargeant, did not make a final Q2 run, possibly because the team considered Q3 out of reach and wanted to save a new set of soft tyres for the race.

In Q1, home driver Daniel Ricciardo set a personal best of 1:17.466 on his final lap, but it was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 5, leaving him eliminated in eighteenth. Zhou Guanyu damaged the left side of his front wing on the exit kerb at Turn 10 and was last in nineteenth. With no spare of the latest specification available, Sauber had to fit an older version, a breach of parc fermé rules that would require a pit-lane start. Esteban Ocon brushed the wall at the final corner and suffered a puncture but still advanced from Q1 in fourteenth, reaching Q2 for the first time that season. Pierre Gasly received a reprimand for crossing the pit-exit line as he joined the track.