Red Bull’s dream of making it to the front row for a third consecutive year suffered a major blow after qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.
Both drivers of the team finished in the top three in qualifying. Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of a stunning performance from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr., who returned to the track two weeks after missing the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to an appendectomy, with teammate Sergio Perez ahead of third. I got into the rank.
However, in the end, Perez will not start as the third man. The driver received a three-place grid penalty for interfering with Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg during Q1, dropping Perez to sixth place.
After the qualifying session, both Perez and Hulkenberg were called to meet with race officials and explained the incident from their perspective. Hulkenberg, who was on a push lap, reached turn 13, where he encountered Perez, who was on an out lap. With the Red Bull driver stuck on the racing line, Hulkenberg was forced to back off the throttle to avoid running into Perez’s rear.
by Steward’s report, they heard from both drivers and reviewed team radio transmissions. As the stewards wrote in their report, Red Bull “…concentrated on the car in front of Perez, which had just slowed down, warning Perez that Hulkenberg was behind him until one second before Hulkenberg arrived. I didn’t. I was late to avoid Hulkenberg’s interference.”
Stewards said they were “evaluating” the conditions Perez and the team faced during Q1, describing traffic in the first half of qualifying as “dynamic”. But they concluded that Perez “unnecessarily interfered” with the Haas driver.
Hulkenberg said the incident was not the reason he missed out on qualifying for Q2. “It wasn’t ideal because I got held up by Perez on the first run, and then the second lap wasn’t clean either. The wind changed on the exit of Turn 7 and I lost a lot of time just because of the difference in wind direction. ” said the Haas driver in the team’s post-qualifying report. “Then we lost the front tire on the remaining laps and didn’t make enough of an improvement. We’re all very close in the midfield so we’ll see how it goes, but the graining that we saw this weekend Perhaps tomorrow will offer some interesting options and possibilities, so I’m looking forward to it either way.”
Perez was forced to start from 6th place, and his chances of finishing at the front took a huge hit. He will be behind the Ferrari duo of Sainz and Charles Leclerc – whose pace has been good all weekend – and also behind the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Norris. started third, with Piastri behind him in fifth.
Whether Perez can fill those three slots will be a big storyline on Sunday Down Under.
