Verstappen will start ahead of Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez after the one-hour qualifying session, which was split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3. Australian Grand Prix grid: Verstappen on pole from Sainz Cla Nº Driver Car / Engine Time Delay 1 1MaxContinue Reading
Verstappen took pole position with a last-gasp 1m15.915s effort, bettering a still-recovering Carlos Sainz by 0.170 seconds.Sergio Perez will start from third with Lando Norris the highest-placed McLaren driver in fourth. Charles Leclerc had been the pacesetter in the early stages of the weekend but an error on his final lapContinue Reading
Sainz missed the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix a fortnight ago due to appendicitis and recovered just in time from the procedure to travel to Australia and take part in the Melbourne event.The Spaniard produced a strong qualifying performance to grab second on the grid behind polesitter Max Verstappen – aContinue Reading
The championship leader bagged his third pole of the season, denying Ferrari and Carlos Sainz a chance to lead the field away on Sunday despite the Spaniard heading both Q1 and Q2.Verstappen had struggled with the balance of his RB20 throughout the weekend so far, but incrementally drew closer toContinue Reading
After every F1 qualifying session, Autosport assesses each squad’s qualifying record in terms of team-mate duels.This record is based exclusively on qualifying results so that grid penalties don’t alter the statistics.When a driver can’t put in a representative lap time due to a technical issue or an incident, this willContinue Reading
Verstappen had not headlined a single session across the weekend so far, but dialled in his pace throughout the qualifying sessions and found a quarter-second advantage at the very end to deny Ferrari a chance at pole.Sainz had been fastest in both Q1 and Q2 and looked set to challengeContinue Reading
Only moments before, Verstappen had pipped Carlos Sainz by 0.057s as the Ferrari driver spent much of the hour on top owing to his performance on the medium tyre earlier on in the session.An interesting thread within FP3 concerned the rapid degradation of the soft tyres over a single lap,Continue Reading
The team does not currently have a spare chassis, so following the Thai driver’s huge crash in FP1 in Australia on Friday the decision was taken to switch him to Logan Sargeant’s car, leaving the American on the sidelines.Team principal James Vowles has confirmed that the third chassis is stillContinue Reading
In December, McLaren shareholders unanimously approved a full recapitalisation of the business ostensibly to allow for a “simplified” and “streamlined” governance process.However, the finances of the supercar maker have long been under scrutiny.During the COVID-19 pandemic, it took out a £150million loan with the National Bank of Bahrain, sold aContinue Reading
An FP1 crash for Alex Albon damaged his chassis beyond immediate repair. With Williams not having built up a spare tub, the team has opted to sacrifice Sargeant to enter Albon.Team principal James Vowles concedes the decision to bench the American is “one of the hardest” he has had toContinue Reading