Formula 1: Max Verstappen takes pole position for Australian Grand Prix; Carlos Sainz second

Melbourne: Max Verstappen not surprisingly clinched pole position for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. More surprising was record eight-time Australian pole winner Lewis Hamilton not making it into the final round of qualifying on Saturday. Verstappen, who has won both races to start the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez second both times, will start in the front row for Sunday's 58-lap race on the temporary Albert Park street circuit.

Carlos Sainz, returning from appendix surgery ahead of the last race in Saudi Arabia, was second-fastest, followed by Perez in third.

“It was a bit unexpected but I'm very happy,” Verstappen said. “It's been a bit of a tricky weekend so far. (Ferrari) seem very quick, so it's a bit of a question mark for tomorrow.”

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The biggest surprise of the day was Mercedes driver Hamilton. He failed to advance from the second qualifying session.

Ferrari’s performance here could have been compromised after Sainz declared he was ready to return to the cockpit, but not feeling 100% after surgery for appendicitis ahead of the last race in Saudi Arabia. But the Spanish driver, who is out of contract at the end of the season, rebounded from a hospital bed a few weeks ago before Saudi Arabia to the front row of the grid in Australia this weekend.

“It's been a tough couple of weeks, so to make it to this weekend I'm very happy,” Sainz said. “I was a bit rusty at the beginning but I got up to speed and I'm feeling good in the car.” Sainz said he was still feeling the effects of the surgery.

“I am not going to lie, I am not in my most comfortable state, but i can get it done,” he said. "Obviously, a lot of discomfort and weird feelings, but no pain so it allows me to push.”

It was an eventful week ahead of Saturday's qualifying. FIA’s Ethics Committee had cleared its president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, from “interference of any kind” at two F1 events last year was followed quickly by a social media post from Susie Wolff, who is director of the all-female series F1 Academy and also married to Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff, announcing that she had filed a criminal complaint in the French courts against the sport's governing body for statements made about her in December.

It was all against the backdrop of ongoing furor surrounding Red Bull Racing and its team principal Christian Horner.

Red Bull's RB20 car has secured perfect 1-2 results at the season-opening events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia,