An immensely close and frenetic qualifying session seems like it has set the tone for a scintillating 2023 F1 season. Throughout the session, it felt that most drivers’ positions were in jeopardy as in Q1 all the cars were spread by only 1.28 seconds.

Red Bull: The unsurprising first polesitter of 2023 is Max Verstappen as he takes his 21st pole following an utterly dominant Q2 and Q3. Perez wasn’t far behind and completes a Red Bull front row lockout.

Ferrari: In a turn of events similar to last year, Ferrari are once again up there with Leclerc P3 and Sainz P4. An odd call to stop the Monegasque having a second go in Q3 may have cost him pole.

Aston Martin: After all that hope, Aston Martin failed to break into the top four but still made a great step forward on last year’s performance. Alonso impressed in P5 while Stroll was still in the game in P8.

Mercedes: Despite showing some incredibly strong pace in Q1 and Q2, the other teams stepped it up a notch in Q3 leaving Mercedes lagging behind somewhat. Russell was P6 ahead of Hamilton in P7.

Alpine: A tale of two halves for Alpine with Ocon into Q3 and P9 on the grid while Gasly failed to break out of Q1 and starts last due to a lap time deletion – not the way to start with a new team!

Haas: Hulkenberg put in an impressive performance for his return with P10 on the grid however Magnussen failed to have the same effect in P17.

McLaren: Norris came close to elimination from Q1 but was saved by the rules (not his time) and pressed on to take P11. Piastri hasn’t started that well and ended up P18.

Alfa Romeo: A reasonable performance for Alfa Romeo with both cars having consistent running. Bottas took P12 with Zhou just behind in P13.

AlphaTauri: A great start to the season for Yuki as he states his advantage in the team with P14 to his teammate’s P19 (which would’ve been last if not for Gasly).

Williams: So close for Sargeant as he set the exact same time as Norris but as the Brit set it first Logan was out of Q1. Albon made it into Q2 but starts only P15 due to front wing damage.

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