The Latest Breaking News from Alex Albon

Leclerc reported early on his out lap that the line looked dry. Later he said “I think we should box for softs,” and was told “Verstappen stayed out.”

Although a drying line had emerged by the start of Q2, offering drivers to take a chance on running with soft tyres, the conditions had worsened by the start of the final part of qualifying and the rain picked up in intensity.

Max Verstappen led the pack out of the pits at the start of the one-hour session and he set the first place benchmark at 1m20.154s in his RB19 which was fitted with an aerodynamic load-measuring device.

Of a 17-race calendar, only Melbourne, Monaco and Montreal took the championship away from permanent circuits.

Verstappen is currently marching towards a third successive world title, with his 2023 successes so far featuring little in the way of the wheel-to-wheel scrapping that characterised his 2021 success over Russell’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton and his early 2022 fights against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. 

Verstappen is currently marching towards a third successive world title, with his 2023 successes so far featuring little in the way of the wheel-to-wheel scrapping that characterised his 2021 success over Lewis Hamilton and his early 2022 fights against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. 

Williams has only scored one point so far this season, courtesy of 10th place for Albon in the Bahrain season opener. At this point in 2022, it had three of its eventual eight points.

Verstappen will start ahead of Sainz and Lando Norris (McLaren) after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Spots of rain falling ahead of Q1 led to that segment featuring many offs and a red flag – with Fernando Alonso picking up damage in an incident that meant he was not a pole threat.