Thrice as nice for Max

A ldquovery satisfiedrdquo threetime world champion Max Verstappen clinched a third straight pole of the season on Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix as the flying Dutchman targets a record 10th consecutive winUnder hazy skies at Albert Park Ferrarirsquos Carlos Sainz back in the car barely two weeks after appendicitis surgery came second in tense qualifying and will keep the Red Bull ace company on the front rowSergio Perez in the other Red Bull will start third alongside Lando Norris who scored a surprise fourth in his McLarenAlso Read Srikanth enters first semifinal after 16 monthslsquoItrsquos a tough weekendrsquoldquoVery happy with that because so far this weekend it has been a bit tough to find a good balance in the carrdquo said Verstappen who is looking to repeat his feat from last year when he started first and won a chaotic race in MelbourneCarlos Sainz JrldquoAnd even throughout qualifying in Q1 and Q2 I didnrsquot really feel I could be fighting for pole But then we made some little tickles on the car and that seemed to help me in Q3 to really push it to the limit Obviously things can improve but overall very satisfied with the performancerdquoThe 26yearold knocked out his rivals to earn a 35th career pole with a flying lap of one minute 15915 0270 secs ahead of Sainz who missed the last race in JeddahldquoI donrsquot feel 100 percent itrsquos impossible after spending a lot of days in bed like I did to try and recoverrdquo said the Spaniard after his remarkable comebackldquoBut the good thing is that I have no pain I just have discomfort and everything feels a bit weird Today when the adrenaline came out I could close the visor and go for it which is a good thingrdquoThe 2022 Melbourne winner Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari was fifth with McLarenrsquos Oscar Piastri sixth on his home track Mercedesrsquo George Russell came seventh ahead of RBrsquos Yuki Tsunoda and the Aston Martin pair of Lance Stroll and Fernando AlonsoHamilton will start from 11thBut there was disappointment for Mercedesrsquo seventime world champion Lewis Hamilton who missed Q3 and will start from 11th Perez came second to Verstappen in the opening two races and said he had confidence he could match or better the feat on SundayldquoIt was very tricky qualifying with the tyres and getting the best out of themrdquo said the Mexican ldquoAs long as we are able to have good faith we should be able to come throughrdquoHe will need something special to stop Verstappen who won the opening two races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia both from poleThe Dutchman is chasing a 10th straight victory to match his own record set last year while Red Bull are attempting to score a third straight 12 finish for the first time in the teamrsquos historySainz topped Q2 from Verstappen and Leclerc with Hamiltonmdashan eighttime Australian polesittermdasha key casualty His loss was Tsunodarsquos gain as the only interloper outside of the big five teams joining the Q3 ranksThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever