Max Verstappen’s Third Place Finish in F1 Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix

After a challenging pair of Friday practice sessions, reigning champion Max Verstappen was pleasantly surprised to finish third in Formula 1 qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver ended up fifth in FP1 and seventh in FP2 due to issues with his RB21 chassis during qualifying simulations. His new team-mate Liam Lawson found the car even harder to handle, sitting at the bottom of the timesheets. Overnight work seemed to improve the Red Bull significantly, with Verstappen just 0.081s away from Oscar Piastri’s FP3 benchmark.

Red Bull’s Turnaround in Fortunes

The overnight work appeared to bring the Red Bull into a much better frame. Verstappen reclaimed his third position in qualifying, albeit 0.385s shy of Lando Norris’ pole lap. Reflecting on qualifying, Verstappen admitted that the car was still lacking some outright pace, but the balance changes had made it easier to get the tyres into the right window for a qualifying lap.

“We had a bit of a tough start,” Verstappen suggested. “This has never really been a good track for us, so it took a bit of time to understand how we can improve the situation, and we did that today.” He was happy with his performance in qualifying, despite the car’s lack of pace.

Challenges Ahead for Red Bull

Verstappen noted that the sensitivity of the tyres, particularly in the higher-speed corners, made it difficult to maintain pace throughout the lap. He didn’t expect “miracles” from Red Bull’s long-run pace, which was found to be the fourth-best in the field when accounting for medium-tyre stints. However, this was before the team made changes to the RB21’s set-up.

“I don’t expect any kind of miracles about it,” Verstappen said. “I think [long-run pace] is OK. But I think it’s not on the same level [as the McLarens]. I’ll just do my best to see what happens tomorrow.”