Max Verstappen was pleased to qualify in third place despite taking provisional pole position with his first run in Q3.
The Red Bull driver was six tenths of a second off the pace on Friday, but found a second in final practice. He was close to the McLaren drivers throughout qualifying, and briefly looked set to pull off a surprise in Q3 when Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made mistakes on their first runs.However clean laps by the McLaren pair at the end of the session left Verstappen third, 0.385 seconds off pole position. Despite having taken pole position for the last two Australian Grands Prix, Verstappen said he was satisfied with the result at a track which hasn’t always suited Red Bull’s car.
“We had a bit of a tough start,” said Verstappen. “This has never really been a good track for us so it took a bit of time to understand how we could improve the situation. We did that today.
“Honestly, I’m quite surprised to be sitting here after yesterday. I felt confident, I felt one with the car, but clearly, we were lacking a bit of pace.”
Verstappen’s new team mate Liam Lawson dropped out in the first round of qualifying after sliding off-track at the end of the lap. Verstappen said the tyre drop-off over the course of a lap was a key challenge.
“Overall, I’m happy with the laps in qualifying,” he said. “I tried to really extract everything. The tyres are quite sensitive around here, with all these high-speed corners, but I’m happy to be here.”
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He said Red Bull’s car “came alive a little more” thanks to the changes they made overnight.
“Yesterday it was, in general, quite okay to drive, just too slow. Today it was a little faster.
“But clearly still not fast enough. Still, to be ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes here is good for us.”
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Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
15th March 2025, 11:13
GOAT performance by the GOAT! 1s/lap faster than his team mate and 3rd place on the grid in what is a midfield car, probably 5th or 6th quickest (unless you think Red Bull are fools paying Max tens of millions and he isn’t at the very least 0.2-0.3s/lap faster than Tsunoda and Albon in the same car). It reminds me of good, old times in 1997, when Schumacher was fighting for top positions, while his team mate Irvine was qualifying around 10th-15th place (Brazil, Monaco, Canada, Belgium or Luxembourg), but now there’s zero doubt about equal opportunities for Red Bull drivers, unlike in Schumacher era.
stjs16 (@stjs16)
15th March 2025, 17:11
Chuck Norris would have qualified the Haas on Pole ;-)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th March 2025, 23:04
What about looking at what the best driver does to judge how good the car is? I’d say red bull is 2nd fastest.
I have no doubt verstappen can extract a bit more than anyone else from the car, but there’s no way he’d qualify 3rd with the 6th best car.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th March 2025, 23:04
I’m gonna say verstappen’s team mates have been massively underperforming, and the decision to promote lawson was already odd before seeing this quali, tsunoda had more experience.
Edvaldo
15th March 2025, 14:16
Max has been playing the ‘Toto card’ for a while. They have a very good car, just like they had in all but a few weekends last year.
He looked set for pole until the very end. Every time he was on the screen, it was purple sectors. But his S3 was always weaker than others, and that’s where he lost it.
MichaelN
15th March 2025, 14:48
Indeed, too many people pretend that Red Bull’s off-weekend at Monza was somehow the norm in the second half of 2024. It wasn’t.
baasbas
15th March 2025, 16:26
@Edvaldo
I disagree. Back in the day when Toto sat on 2 missile cars, where they actually turned their engines down to humiliate the rest of the field a bit less, he was frantically pointing at Ferrari: “hey look at those flashy red cars, they look quick, they might be a threat”.
That was borderline ridiculous. Where did Verstappen do that?
Edvaldo
15th March 2025, 16:37
He has been underplaying his own chances since last season, hasn’t he? He’s a generational talent, their car is very good and their team has the tightest operations of all the grid, they’re pretty much in for the title fight.
The context doesn’t need to be EXACTLY THE SAME for you to understand what i wrote, and i know you did.
baasbas
15th March 2025, 18:35
test reply (?)
baasbas
15th March 2025, 18:40
Weird.. maybe because I used links in my reply?
Another try:
You were using hyperbole, I know, but for hyperbole to work, there needs to at least be something to base it on. And I think that is lacking here.
You say he has been underplaying. Has he though?
— Had a link to article from RF here —
“I also spent a lot of time in the simulator, even yesterday with the team. I don’t think we’ll be in the fight for the win in Melbourne, but hopefully we can implement some improvements over the next few races.”
I think he hasn’t.
— Had a link to article from German site with interview Marko here —
Marko predicted Mclaren 3 tenths ahead here, seems pretty accurate after Quali.
So from my perspective you are trying to make an argument with a straw man. And you counters the straw man with: “their car is very good”, but they haven’t said it wasn’t?
And also nobody at RBR stated they’re not in the title fight, because their car is bad?
Edvaldo
15th March 2025, 20:03
You seem pretty glad that he finished exactly 3 tenths off, after messing the final sector while being toe to toe with the Mclarens until then. In a track that “does not like their car”.
But then again, Tsunoda finished right on his tail. Is he just 2 tenths faster than Tsunoda or was there more to give on that car? Exactly.
baasbas
15th March 2025, 21:34
@Edvaldo
You forgot the part where you actually replied to what I said.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
15th March 2025, 23:09
Definitely agree with you in the sense verstappen is very different from wolff in underplaying his chances, he said the car didn’t look as quick as the mclaren and indeed mclaren seem to have a bit of a gap, at least in q3.
Wolff was indeed annoying, always saying other teams might be a threat in the dominant years.
Having said that, tsunoda being 2 tenths off on a much worse car is odd, I’d say there’s a bit more in the red bull, but not enough to be on level with mclaren.
fawkes
15th March 2025, 18:04
If he can put his car just behind the leading McLarens then Red Bull is by now the second best car. Period. Just because Lawson can’t extract this performance doesn’t mean the car is bad, it means the car is hard to drive, but definitely fast.