Max Verstappen has taken out pole position in a dominant fashion at the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, finishing atop the timing sheet with a 1:15:915 lap.
Verstappen will be joined by Carlos Sainz on the front row, with Sergio Perez rounding out the top three for the race on Sunday.
Hometown heroes Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo finished on opposite ends of the timing sheets, with the Melbourne native managing a sixth place finish whilst Ricciardo's deleted lap in Q1 saw him go down to 19th.
Carlos Sainz was the quickest on the gird in the first qualifying sessions, leading the way with a 1:16:73, beating out the pair of Red Bulls by less than a tenth of a second.
The first session was a tense one for the capacity crowd at Albert Park as Ricciardo struggled the find pace on the soft tyre. Although, Victoria's own Oscar Piastri never looked in doubt and constantly troubled the front of the pack.
With the time dwindling away for the bottom four facing elimination, Ricciardo turned back the clock and put on a trademark display on his final lap.
Ricciardo’s lap time was good enough to place him in 10th spot, securing a position in Q2 for the time being. However, Ricciardo was caught exceeding track limits meaning his time was deleted and leaving him with a bitterly disappointing 19th place finish – the first time the Australia has ever been eliminated in Q1 in his home race.
Piastri got through relatively easily with the 9th best time but still had some work to do being sixth tenths away from the leader Sainz.
Q2 delivered just as many dramatic twists throughout the sessions, with the biggest shock of the weekend coming in the final moments.
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was left stunned as his lap time of 1:17:44 fell 0.059 seconds short of his teammate George Russell in 10th, meaning the Mercedes driver wouldn’t feature in the top-ten shootout.
After showing plenty of promise in Q1, Alex Albon was unable to convert his success into a Q3 appearance, whilst Valtteri Bottas followed suit.
Piastri looked much stronger in the second session, posting the second-best lap time for the majority of Q2 before being usurped by Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
It was Sainz again who took out the fastest time but, on this occasion, he was joined by his teammate Leclerc in second place.
After playing second fiddle to the Ferraris throughout the first two sessions, Verstappen asserted his dominance in the early stages of Q3 with a lap time nearly 0.2 seconds faster than his rivals.
Fernando Alonso had the first mistake of Q3, losing his car at Turn Six but narrowly avoiding the wall as he skidded across the gravel.
Piastri and teammate Norris began to fall off the pace a bit as a three-way battle ensued for pole position between Verstappen and the Ferraris.
Verstappen’s dominance in Q3 was maintained until the end as he finished with the fastest lap of the day, 0.27 seconds ahead of his closest rival Carlos Sainz in second.