Max Verstappen took Pole in a tight Qualifying session which saw the top 8 only separated by 0.367 going onto their final flying laps.
Verstappen took the Pole by 0.236 from George Russell, and 0.372 from Lewis Hamilton in a strong session for Mercedes.
The big news coming out of Q1 was Sergio Perez not making it through, with him locking up and getting beached at turn 3.
Other big news from Qualifying 1 was home hero Oscar Piastri not making it out of Q1, while his teammate Lando Norris did.
The drivers we lost from this session were Piastri, Zhou Guanyu, Logam Sargent, Valtteri Bottas, and Perez.
In Qualifying 2, Norris finds himself locking up and going through the turn three gravel trap, it certainly seems the corner the drivers are struggling the most with this weekend.
The track surface was proving to be tricky for the drivers, so tricky in fact Lance Stroll decided to go back out on track with scrubbed tires for his final run.
While cars were trying to warm their tires for their last flying lap, a little bird decided it wanted to waddle across the road, which made Verstappen have to do some avoid action.
The fastest person in the Session though was Max Verstappen with him 0.227 faster than Fernando Alonso, while Sainz and Leclerc followed him.
It was a very impressive session for Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg who found himself in fifth position at the end of Q2, and only 0.356s off the fastest time of Max Verstappen.
The drivers we lost in this session were Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Norris, Kevin Magnussen, and Nyck De Vries.
Ocon seemed extremely frustrated by this, complaining of traffic on his final lap.
Then we moved on to Q3, which looked to be anyone’s for the taking.
The first laps in Q3 were extremely interesting with Max Verstappen sitting on the pole but only by 0.009 from Lewis Hamilton, and Alonso in third making it 11 World Championships in the top three.
Verstappen had been complaining about the downshifting of Red Bull, was this Red Bull looking weak for the first time this season?
Anyone in the top seven could get the pole with 0.367s covering the top 8 cars.
So, one question remains, will Max Verstappen covert P1 in Qualifying to win his first race win at Albert Park?
Here is how the top ten finished at the end of Q3:
