Verstappen secures pole & is surely on his way to third F1 win

With Formula 1 fans hitting another weekend, it was finally time to kick back and enjoy the Australian Grand Prix, but rather predictably it went as many racing fans had expected as Red Bull's Max Verstappen again ran away with another win in qualifying and it is likely to simply guarantee that he will now pick up his third proper win of the 2024 race calendar.

The Dutch 26 year old's dominance in the sport seemingly effortlessly continues, although Ferrari's Carlos Sainz did try to push him close and did make a credible challenge for pole position on the Melbourne track, and he was actually the quickest in the first two parts of qualifying, but the reigning world champion battled back in the top 10 shootout, and secured pole by 0.27 seconds and most odds would have suggested he would do just that.

The biggest number of promotions are always linked to the most popular track and races: Monaco, Monza or Suzuka. Considerable coverage also attracts a higher number of bettors.

McLaren's Lando Norris will start in third one ahead of fellow Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, after Red Bull's Sergio Perez was hit with a grid penalty. Mercedes' George Russell was seventh and Lewis Hamilton's own issues continue with him coming in eleventh.

Whilst Mercedes' struggles will take plenty of column inches in the media, themain stories that will be written about Red Bull will concern the fact that Verstappen were largely out of sorts for most of the weekend. They remained there, or thereabouts, but they did not top any of the practice sessions, and it will certainly spark some talk of whether they had any hidden issues of their own, or whether it was simply a case of Verstappen believing that he did not have to push himself until it more mattered.

There will be those who wonder if there is an element of complacency creeping in if those lines of thoughts are accurate, but there will be others who say that in not pushing himself unless it matters, is actually the most sensible way forward given he can clearly best everyone else on the track  when he needs to.

Three pole positions from three, and two wins to his name already, with almost everyone fully expecting that it will become three wins from three, well, it simply cannot be argued with in the sport right now.

Reflecting on qualifying he admitted it had been 'a tricky weekend' but that they were where they needed to be by the end of it, and although Red Bull typically do better in the race itself when compared to qualifying, he added that he was not surprised with the performance Ferrari put in, and he was expecting them to pose another challenge in the race as well.

"They seem very quick also in the long runs so a bit of a question mark also for tomorrow but that makes it interesting."

Sainz will certainly be pleased with his own performance as he is only two weeks out from undergoing abdominal surgery, and whilst he admitted that he was pain free during qualifying, he was not entirely comfortable but he knows that this will also ease as the coming weeks pass.

We will now simply see what the race brings.