The two-time Dutch world champion Red Bull’s Max Verstappen achieved his second pole position this Saturday in Melbourne of the season, at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, while his Mexican teammate, Sergio Pérez, will start in last position.
For this third round of the Formula 1 World Championship, the Dutchman will start ahead of the British George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, both from Mercedes, satisfied after a successful third qualifying session.
Verstappen only overtook Russell by 236 thousandthsa smaller difference than expected, perhaps due to slightly chilly conditions in qualifying.
The Spanish Fernando Alonso, from Aston Martin, and Carlos Sainz, from Ferrari, achieved fourth and fifth position.
The Mexican Sergio Pérez left the track in the first part of qualifying, a symbol of a catastrophic start to the weekend for the man who had taken pole position and victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix two weeks earlier.
During the free rehearsals on Saturday, he had already left several times from the track due to braking problems, which also prevented him from achieving a better position afterwards.
“It’s always the same problem”, sand lamented the Mexican.
“Hopefully we can fix that technical problem for tomorrow’s race (Sunday), otherwise it will be difficult to run like this,” he said.
“We are confident that together, as a teamwe will be able to fix it,” he said.
“I thought the problem was solved. And I was confident in that sense, but it wasn’t like that and I noticed it as soon as I touched the brake on lap three (of qualifying),” Pérez explained.
– The 22nd ‘pole’ of his career –
Verstappen, who only leads him at one point, He could take advantage of the situation to consolidate his leadership in the World Cup in Melbourne.
The Dutchman has never won this race and only managed one podium finish in 2019 (3rd). Last year he dropped out after his car engine caught fire.
“I’ve been on the podium once here, I hope to be on another step tomorrow,” said the 25-year-old.
In Melbourne he achieved the 22nd ‘pole’ of his career, equaling the Spanish Fernando Alonso, 16 years older than him. He is now approaching the Brazilian Nelson Piquet and the Austrian Niki Lauda, who have achieved 24.
The Dutchman, winner of the first GP of the season in Bahrain, he said however that he was not in top form. In Jeddah, he suffered from stomach pains before and during the race, which did not prevent him from finishing second, after a fantastic comeback after starting fifteenth.
If Pérez does not imitate him on Sunday, the third grand prix of the season could allow to another team to finally break Red Bull’s total dominance since the start of the season.
