Max Verstappen survived a tough push from Carlos Sainz, who was back, to continue his unbeaten start to the Australian Grand Prix qualifying in 2024.

With his Mercedes failing to qualify for Q3, Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday’s race from position 11, which would be his poorest starting position in Melbourne in 14 years. This is a new source of sadness for the driver.

At the beginning of the new season, Max Verstappen made it three out of three poles, setting a personal best lap time of 1:15.915 to set up his pursuit of matching his own record of 10 consecutive race victories.

However, Sainz of Ferrari, who had only been back in action for two weeks following appendix surgery that kept him out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, had to be overcome by the world champion. Prior to Verstappen raising the stakes in the pivotal final session to win pole by 0.270s, the Spaniard was fastest in both Q1 and Q2.

The Melbourne stewards punished Sergio Perez, who had started the second Red Bull from third place, three positions down to sixth after he blocked Nico Hulkenberg of Haas during the first qualifying round.

Instead, Lando Norris of McLaren, who qualified fourth, moved up to the front of the second row.

Norris was already enjoying his best grid position of the season thus far in fourth place.

Oscar Piastri of Australia, who was sixth fastest in the second McLaren and fifth fastest in the Ferrari, as well as Leclerc, who gave up on his last effort at qualifying in the third car, both earned a spot each on the grid at Perez’s expense.

After going slightly wide under braking at Turn Three, Leclerc elected to pit rather than finish his last lap, marking his first front-row qualifying position since the Qatar GP in October of last year.

He acknowledged that driving the SF-24 had proven challenging and that his final attempt at qualifying in Q3 had involved a “very aggressive” front-wing modification that did not assist matters.

Sainz’s nimble performance upon his comeback was all the more remarkable considering his teammate’s assessment of the vehicle.

The Spaniard, who was substituted by Oliver Bearman, a reserve driver for Ferrari, at the most recent race in Jeddah, stated, “I’m not in my most comfortable state when I’m driving out there, but I can get it done.”

“A lot of discomfort and weird feelings, but no pain, and that allowed me to push flat out.”

Mercedes had seemed to be improving in the earlier final practice session, after a challenging Friday, but qualifying once more revealed the W15’s shortcomings.

Lance Stroll’s last-ditch surge put Hamilton out of the race as he was about to finish in 10th place during his final lap of the second stage, while teammate George Russell just survived.

Russell finished seventh in the qualifying round, eight-tenths of a second slower than the lead. Max Verstappen’s position on the grid was held by Mercedes’ drivers last year, who finished second and third respectively.

Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese driver, outqualified both Aston Martin cars in eighth place and once again showed impressive speed over a single lap to propel RB into the top ten.

For the first time this year, Stroll outqualified Fernando Alonso in what is expected to be an all-green row five. Alonso’s first attempt at a fast journey across the grass damaged the floor of his AMR24, which hindered his performance on his second run. Stroll’s lone run in Q3 produced the team’s fastest lap.

Although Tsunoda made his second consecutive participation in the Q3 phase, Daniel Ricciardo, the teammate of the RB, received a further blow to his dismal start to the season on home soil as he qualified only 18th following a lap-time deletion for running off track at the end of Q1. His initial position in 12th was on the right side of the cut line according to the lap.

In the meantime, Williams’ lone driver appeared to justify the decision by qualifying in 12th place, matching their best of 2024 thus far, after making the harsh call on Friday night to withdraw Logan Sargeant from the remainder of the weekend so Alex Albon could take over the one-remaining FW46 chassis after the Thai driver crashed his own heavily in opening practice.

Russell once again surpassed Hamilton, adding to Mercedes’ misery.

Based on the most recent brutal evidence from Saturday in Melbourne, Mercedes’ search for what they continue to believe is greater inherent speed in their new-for-2024 W15 vehicle, especially in quicker corners, is still very much open.

The W15 wound up the better part of a second behind the leading speed when it mattered most in absolute low-fuel qualifying, having finished fourth and fifth quickest in the morning’s final practice session and within a tenth of Ferrari’s time.

“The inconsistency within the car, it really messes with the mind,” a disgruntled Hamilton, who has recorded a record eight poles at Albert Park and who last started outside the top 10 at the circuit as a McLaren driver in 2010, told Sky Sports F1.

“But George performed admirably. That’s just the way things are. All I have to do is attempt to perform better throughout the race.”

Russell edged Hamilton by just 0.059 seconds to finish on the right side of the cut line in the third qualifying round, but that was sufficient to guarantee that, similar to what happened at this time last year, he leads the seven-time champion 3-0 early in the new season.

“From my side, I feel a bit more confident and consistent with the car,” explained Russell.

“We are aware that there is room for improvement at the high-speed corners on this track, and there are many of them.

“I believe that when we have more petrol in the car and everyone drives a little more slowly tomorrow, we will be in a lot better position. However, this circuit does not work in our favor.

Sainz watches as Ferrari challenges Max Verstappen to the finish.

Max Verstappen confessed that Red Bull had not been certain of the familiar result in Formula One until the final session, even though the reigning triple world champion was at the top of the qualifying chart.

In practice, Ferrari’s vehicle appeared more balanced around the tricky Albert Park, and on Friday, when Max Verstappen went off course and injured his floor, the SF-24’s long laps were actually faster than the RB20s, who had previously held the lead.

Verstappen said following qualifying, “In the race since it looks like Ferrari is also very fast and quite comfortable the whole weekend already,” as a result of Ferrari’s long-run pace. Thus, let’s hope that the race will be entertaining.”

Max Verstappen was asked if he thought Ferrari was closer to them this weekend than it was during the first two rounds in the Middle East. He answered, “Yeah, maybe it’s because we were not on top of things, but they looked well dialed in, let’s say, like that from the start.”

And it was maybe a little bit the other way around from our perspective. Yes, we were able to make improvements. However, with the softer compounds we have this year, the race will be really difficult.”

Additionally, if Ferrari can perform the 58-lap race from the front row flawlessly on Sunday, Sainz believes they “might have a chance” to stop the Dutchman’s lengthy winning streak.

In Singapore last September, the Spaniard was the one who put an end to Max Verstappen’s record 10-race winning streak.

“To beat Max, I have to be at my best,” Sainz stated, acknowledging that he had not been in Q3 due to a few errors in his closing laps.

Since he hasn’t been in Singapore in a while and has been on the top step, I will give it everything I have to complete the task. But yes, this is the one weekend where we’re moving at a decent rate. Difficult to pass on and difficult for tires to handle. Well, who knows? I believe there is a possibility for us.

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