2024.03.23
Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was the class act in Saturday qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix as he finished 0.270s clear of Carlos Sainz Jr. to claim his third 2024 pole position in a row.
The Dutchman was in imperious form again during Q3 as Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez finished third, but will start Sunday’s Albert Park race in sixth after receiving a three-place grid penalty for impeding the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.
Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda drove well to reach the final session and will start eighth on the grid for the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team with Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo back in 18th place.
QUOTES
Oracle Red Bull Racing
MAX VERSTAPPEN – 1st
“Even though it was a more difficult weekend, achieving pole position today was great. I didn’t really expect to make it on pole, but we kept on making steady improvements throughout qualifying and I felt able to push a little bit better. Over the weekend, we have been struggling with the graining and have had a lot of things to figure out, but we just needed to keep on fine tuning the car with the Team. The balance of the car got better throughout; as we went through the session it felt easier to manage and I’m very happy with the laps we did in Q3 and surprised myself. We obviously had all the information from Q1 and Q2 and I think we achieved two very good laps. It is a bit of an unknown tomorrow as it is always easy to make a mistake here and it is harder to manage the tyres. Although the weekend has been a bit tough for us and I don’t think tomorrow will be an easy race, to still be on pole with the difficulties that we had is something we can be very proud of.”
SERGIO PEREZ – 6th
“It was quite tricky out there; I think that soft tyre was making things very difficult for us and getting up to speed on that set is quite hard but in the end it really worked well and we were able to extract the maximum from the tyre. I didn’t get the maximum from my final lap and lost a tenth at turn one, I think P2 was achievable, but I was still pleased with P3. Obviously it’s very frustrating to receive the three place penalty this evening but there is still a lot we can do from P6, it’s an open track and I can fight from there. I am confident, I want to get a strong start and move up the field. The degradation is a lot higher than last year here, it will be a challenge with Ferrari and it will come down to strategy and management of the tyres. Hopefully we get the result we want, that would be very nice for the Team.”
Visa Cash App RB
YUKI TSUNODA – 8th
“I’m very happy with the performance of the team and myself. Definitely a big credit to them for giving me a very consistent car throughout the weekend. It’s been easier to adapt and build confidence in every session, so I definitely feel like I had a clean lap, was able to squeeze a few milliseconds from each corner, and maximised the performance. I didn’t expect P8, and especially Q3 after seeing Williams and other teams find more time in Q1, but I’m very happy; it’s the highest qualifying position this season and reflects the hard work of the team. Daniel was also looking quick so it’s a bit of a shame what happened, but let’s see how it goes tomorrow. It won’t be easy, but we aim to have a clean race, do as much as we can, and score points!”
DANIEL RICCIARDO – 18th
“I knew in Turn 4 I was sliding and fighting to put the car on the limit, and in that lap, I washed a little bit wider. I knew I used more kerb than I wanted on the exit, but I wasn’t sure whether it would be off track or not. I had already forgotten about it by Turn 5 and 6 until I came into the garage and Pierre told me the lap was deleted. The team put in a big effort after the weekend in Saudi and we also brought some new parts here which looked better. When I crossed the line, I felt like I gave it all I had and got all I could out of it. I was happy with the lap but I’m a little skeptical because of where we are in terms of the stopwatch, as we were still slow with that lap. I have done enough laps in quali over the years to know where I am, and I think we’re still missing some things. We’ve been facing some struggles all weekend, but it’s not anything in particular; I feel the car and I’m comfortable with it, with the balance and the braking and that’s why the grid position is really painful. Tomorrow will be a long race, probably it’s a two-stop one, so perhaps this will give us a bit more opportunities. I feel like I’ve got a little bit of my anger out of something, so probably something in my driver room will get broken and then I’ll feel better.”
ALAN PERMANE – Racing Director
“A bittersweet day for us today. Of course, we’re super excited and happy for Yuki to be well into Q3. Qualifying eighth is amazing and a testament to the hard work the team has been putting in through the winter, bringing updates to this car already. A real shame for Daniel as he was right there with Yuki in Q1. To just go outside the track a little bit, of course, the rules are the rules, and he has to lose the lap, but he was right there so there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t have gone to Q3 with Yuki.”
