Oscar Piastri speaks of excitement before racing at home grand prix in Australia
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Max Verstappen saw off a spirited Mercedes fightback to put his Red Bull on pole position for the Australian Grand Prix.
Verstappen beat George Russell to top spot by 0.236 seconds to claim his second pole of the year and 22nd of his career.
Lewis Hamilton will line up in third position, one place ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez starts last after he crashed out.
Mercedes have endured a poor start to the new season, but the Silver Arrows suddenly find themselves in contention for a surprise victory at Melbourne’s Albert Park with Russell leading their charge.
Follow live reaction from F1 qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix
George Russell, speaking again after P2:
“The car felt alive, team have been doing an amazing job. We haven’t brought any upgrades. It’s really exciting, we know we’ve got more in the locker - feeling more comfortable in the car and the feeling.
“There’s so much you can do with the setups. When you maximise everything together, you’re able to make a big jump - that’s what this team does best. Pretty happy.
How do you stop Max? “No idea to be honest! We were still three-tenths behind. Really challenging, more pace in the race than qualifying - half-a-second delta on a good day. It won’t matter what we do, he’s going to have the upper hand.”
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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner (Verstappen P1, Perez P20):
“These conditions have made it incredibly tricky. Outstanding job from Max - it was getting the optimum lap, getting the temperature in the tyres...”
On Perez: “He’s had a horrible day. The plan in P3 was to run differently to Max. He never recovered from P3. To lock up and go off, we’re checking all the data to see if there’s something in the engine management - going through all that data as we speak. Trying to ensure if there is something it’s not there tomorrow.”
“Max was up to P2 halfway into the race in Jeddah - stay out of trouble. Checo as Max have two hard tyres tomorrow. If that proves to be the more dominant tyre, that could prove to be crucial in the race tomorrow.”
On this year’s Red Bull: “We’re one point off a maximum score in two races, we’ve got some work to do tomorrow. Third pole in a row - to say it’s our best car? We’ve had some mighty cars over the years but it’s right up there. When we head back to Europe, sizable upgrades from other teams, the delta is much smaller here than on other tracks and we’ll see that into the European season.”
Sergio Perez, qualifying P20:
“Really bad. Terrible day. In FP3 we had this issue, thought we fixed it, but we didn’t. Hope for race day we will fix it, otherwise it’s difficult to fix it.
“Won’t give too much detail. We need to overcome this problem and fix it for tomorrow.
“Minimise the damage [for tomorrow].”
Carlos Sainz, after qualifying P5:
How will he pass Alonso? “Hopefully clean side gives me an advantage.
“Top-five is usually clean, it’s always fun, we’re pushing flat out.”
Fernando Alonso, after qualifying P4:
“There are many unknowns in the race, temperature will be difficult, no one is fully ready so I think tomorrow we will discover who has better pace and management. Let’s see if Mercedes can have a good start and pass Max otherwise it will be a boring race for him out front!”
Alex Albon, qualifying P10:
“We have the big dogs in front of us but we were the next best. Surprising! We worked hard, came up with a gameplan, executed it! Very smooth session!
“We’re coming into this weekend with no one really doing a proper race run, bit more unknown. We’d love to be aggressive but there’s quicker cars behind us. We started 20th last year and got points, so why not more points this year!
“Aston grab the headlines because of the jump they made, we’re a bit more discreet. It’s closed up so much now, two-tenths is putting us in the top-10. Every race feels like a chance - the motivation is we can do this, creates that lovely energy in the team.”
Toto Wolff, speaking after Russell P2 and Hamilton P3:
“She was nice today! We need to be careful with gender! We got it together this weekend, right mechanical setup, I’m happy.
Good starting second and third. It’s been a while since no one in front of our line in P2, Verstappen is a league of his own but we can slot in. We needed a bit of happiness and for the Saturday at least we got that.”
What is the starting grid?
Lewis Hamilton, after qualifying in P3:
“I’m so happy with this. To be on the top-2 rows is a dream for us, to be this close to Red Bull is a dream!
“I’m not disappointed, super greatful for this position and will try to improve!
What’s your target? “To get to first! I’ve been hoping like the first turn of first year, 2007, I don’t know who remembers that!”
All smiles at Mercedes!
George Russell, after qualifying in P2:
“We weren’t expecting that... I was disappointed that we didn’t get pole, expectations change so quickly in this sport. Car feels awesome, we’ve definitely got potential.
“It must be the jet lag programme we’re doing. We’ll take it, excited for tomorrow, tough against Max, very excited to be lining up P2.”