It might have looked like a strong and productive qualifying session for Max Verstappen on Saturday, but the Red Bull driver was the first to admit that he had been 'all over the place' in Melbourne.
Verstappen was quickest in the first round with a time of 1:18.580s, but the session had been interrupted by red flags for a nasty accident involving Williams' Nicholas Latifi and the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
Verstappen dropped to fourth in Q2 and was almost three tenths behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. he was still a lagging behind by the same amount in the final top ten pole shoot-out round, but this time it was good enough for second.
It means that Verstappen will start Sunday's Australian Grand Prix on the front row alongside pole sitter Leclerc, but he clearly wasn't entirely happy with his performance in qualifying.
"I didn't really feel good in the whole weekend so far," he told the media in parc ferme immediately after the end of the session. "I think there's not been one lap where I actually felt confident, so a bit of a struggle.
"Of course, happy to be second, but I think also as a team we want more," he continued. "Second is still a good result, but just not feeling that great to go to the limit. We will try to analyse it.
"Probably in race pace everything stabilises a bit, but for me this weekend so far it has been all over the place." He later told reporters that "I don't feel confident to push to the limit because of the lack of grip."
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1 why he felt that neither Verstappen nor Sergio Perez had been able to stop Leclerc taking pole today.
"Both of them at different points looked like they might be able to get the pole," he said. Verstappen had suffered a lock-up on his fastest lap while Perez experienced a brief loss in power from the MGU-K during his run.
"Max's lock-up cost him probably about three tenths, and that would have put him very, very close to Charles' time," Horner said. "Checo had a small derate on his first lap and carried an extra tenth of fuel as well, because he wanted to do three laps."
Perez himself indicated that the main issue today had been poor visibility because of the low angle of the setting sun over Albert Park.
"It was coming down a lot and getting darker, so we were playing with the visors," he commented. "On my first Q3 run one I was completely dark and there was no sun, so I went back and then there was a lot of sun. Just didn't get it right."
Overall, though, Horner was happy with the outcome of today's session.
"I'm still pretty happy with that. Second and third on a grid, the drivers so close," he said. "It's a great lap by Charles, but we're still on the front row and P3."
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