Red Bull Racing Team's Max Verstappen took the pole position during the qualifying round of the Australian Grand Prix 2024 at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on Saturday, March 23. For the third time on the trot, the Dutch Driver managed to finish on top of the qualifying round after the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Verstappen set the pace ahead of Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez, who will take Pole 1 and 2, respectively in the third race of the ongoing Formula 1 (F1) season. The Dutch star improved his timing in the final laps, that put him 0.270s ahead of Sainz.
Sainz was ruled out of Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to appendicitis surgery but looked impressive in his first qualifying on his return to F1 race. After finishing third in the qualifying round, Sergio Perez will share the second row with Lando Norris of McLaren and Scuderia Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Home favourite Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished in top 10 by securing the sixth pole position ahead of George Russell of George Russell and RB's Yuki Tsunoda in the 7th and 8th position, respectively.
Two Ashton Martin managed to find their place in the top 10 after Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso secured eight and ninth pole position respectively in the qualifying round of the third race of ongoing F1 season.
Lewis Hamilton finishes 11th in Australian GP qualifying
The British Driver Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes' had a disappointing outing in the qualifying round as he finished the 11th. In the final moments of 2nd round of qualifying, Yuki Tsunoda overtook Hamilton and was ahead of sevent-time World Champion in Q3.
Lewis Hamilton is yet to have podium finish in his farewell with Mercedes Team. The 38-year-old finished seventh and ninth in Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, respectively.
Hamilton will join Alex Albon in the third row of the main race. Albon took the chassis of his Williams Racing teammate Logan Sargeant after his car was crashed into the wall during first practice session on Friday.
The 2019 Australian Grand Prix champion Valtteri Bottas will start from Pole 13 while Haas Team's Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon of Alpine team will take 14th and 15th pole position in the main race of the Australian Grand Prix 2024.
Only 19 drivers participated in the qualifying round
With Alex Albon taking the chassis of his teammate Logan Sargeant after Williams Racing car crashed during the practice session, there were only 19 drivers in the qualifying round.
Nico Hulkenberg of Haas F1 Team finished the 16th despite he was disqualified in the round 1 of the qualifying round. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished the 17th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo of RB team and Kick Sauber's Zhou Guanyu, who finished 18th and 19th respectively.
