Formula One's third qualifying session of 2023 was held on Saturday afternoon at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Australia. Formula 1 raced at the circuit in 2022 but the 2019 and 2020 Grand Prix's were canceled due to COVID.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who had problems in qualifying at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, returned to form in Melbourne, taking the pole with a 1:16.867 qualifying time.

The Silver Arrows of Mercedes will start next to and behind Verstappen. George Russell's qualifying time of 1:16.968 will place him outside the pole while teammate Lewis Hamilton will start third with a 1:17.104 qualifying lap.

The pole position at Albert Park was a first for the Belgian-born driver who competes under the Dutch flag. Verstappen also set the quickest lap time in the morning Free Practice session (FP3).

"Max did an outstanding job in qualifying, particularly in these conditions and on this track," said Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner, referring to some early damp conditions on Saturday at Albert Park.

"Our strategy was slightly different today, we weren't doing the build and push laps, so it was all about getting the optimum out lap, getting the temperature he needed into the tyres then nailing the lap which he managed perfectly," added Horner.

"We changed the plan from doing a third or fourth push lap, to only doing two and then down to one in Q3," said Toto Wolff, Mercedes Team Principal & CEO. "Starting second and third is a good place to be. It's been a while since we've had no-one really in front of us by starting P2."

Red Bull's Sergio Perez's trip into the gravel at Turn Three with 12 minutes to go in Q1 brought out the red flag, spoiling several driver's flying laps including his teammate, Max Verstappen. Perez, who had trouble with brake lockups in Turn Three earlier in the final practice session (FP3), saw the end to his qualifying day as he could not drive his RB19 out of the gravel.

"Today was a day to forget. We have a technical issue that we're trying to get to the bottom of, we had the same issue this morning and we thought we fixed it, but as soon as I hit the braking zone it was clear we hadn't," said Perez.

"We suspect an engine setting issue contributed to a lockup that he had on his first lap in qualifying but obviously we need all the data back to analyse and ensure that if there is an issue, it's resolved for tomorrow," added Horner.

The Q1 mishap relegated Perez, who entered the Australian Grand Prix second in points, to start at the rear of the field on Sunday.

McLaren's Lando Norris found the same gravel in Q2. Unlike Perez, Norris was able to recover but was unable to qualify into Q3.

Lando's teammate and home town favorite, 21-year old rookie Oscar Piastri, did not make it out of Q1, missing Q2 by just four-one hundredths of a second.

"We're aware that making it through to Q3, with our current car performance, requires us to absolutely maximise every single corner," said Andrea Stella, McLaren Racing Team Principal. "Today the car was tricky to drive and there was a little bit of lap time left here and there for both Lando and Oscar. However, the reality is that we don't have enough underlying performance on the car and that we have a lot of work ahead to improve that."

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin qualified fourth and sixth, respectively.

Ferrari qualified fifth and seventh with Carlos Sainz leading the charge over teammate Charles Leclerc.

Pos	Driver		Team		Tyre	Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:16.732	153.867 mph
2	Russell		Mercedes	1:16.968	0.236
3	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:17.104	0.372
4	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:17.139	0.407
5	Sainz		Ferrari		1:17.270	0.538
6	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:17.308	0.576
7	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:17.369	0.637
8	Albon		Williams	1:17.609	0.877
9	Gasly		Alpine		1:17.675	0.943
10	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:17.735	1.003
11	Ocon		Alpine		1:17.768	
12	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:18.099	
13	Norris		McLaren		1:18.119	
14	Magnussen	Haas		1:18.129	
15	de Vries	AlphaTauri	1:18.335	
16	Piastri		McLaren		1:18.517	
17	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:18.540	
18	Sargeant	Williams	1:18.557	
19	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:18.714	
20	Perez		Red Bull	No Time

Pos	Driver		Team		Time		Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	1:17.565	152.215 mph
2	Alonso		Aston Martin	1:17.727	0.162
3	Ocon		Alpine		1:17.938	0.373
4	Russell		Mercedes	1:17.955	0.390
5	Gasly		Alpine		1:18.094	0.529
6	Perez		Red Bull	1:18.123	0.558
7	Sainz		Ferrari		1:18.127	0.562
8	Hamilton	Mercedes	1:18.138	0.573
9	Stroll		Aston Martin	1:18.198	0.633
10	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	1:18.330	0.765
11	Hulkenberg	Haas		1:18.410	0.845
12	Albon		Williams	1:18.553	0.988
13	Leclerc		Ferrari		1:18.691	1.126
14	Piastri		McLaren		1:18.713	1.148
15	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	1:18.809	1.244
16	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	1:18.901	1.336
17	Sargeant	Williams	1:18.947	1.382
18	Magnussen	Haas		1:19.056	1.491
19	de Vries	AlphaTauri	1:19.092	1.527
20	Norris		McLaren		1:19.146	1.581

(images provided by Aston Martin F1 Media & Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake))