Max Verstappen at the Australian Grand Prix Max Verstappen at the Australian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen was pleasantly surprised to finish third in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix after experiencing a "tough" opening day of action on Friday. (More Motorsport News)noitepg

Verstappen was the early pacesetter at the Albert Park Circuit, but dropped to third after McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri produced strong laps on their final run. 

The reigning world champion improved on his final run despite brushing the gravel in the fast chicane at turns nine and 10, but ended up 0.385 seconds adrift of title rival Norris. 

Verstappen has won two of the last four Formula One races after failing to win any of the previous 10, but he did not believe he could have beaten the McLarens even with a perfect lap in qualifying. 

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Asked after qualifying if the car had progressed during the weekend so far, Verstappen said: "Yeah, I think so. We had a bit of a tough start.

"This has never really been a good track to us as well, so it took a bit of time to understand how we can improve the situation, and we did that today.

"Honestly,7jogos I'm quite surprised to be sitting here after yesterday. I felt confident, I felt at one with the car.

"Of course, clearly we're still lacking a bit of pace, but overall happy with the laps in qualifying.

"[I] tried to really extract everything, the tyres are quite sensitive around here as well with all these high-speed corners, but I'm happy to be here."

BY Outlook Sports Desk

After being at 302-7 at the end of Day 1 thanks to Kamindu Mendis' century, Sri Lanka were quickly bowled out for only 305. William O'Rourke was the pick of the Kiwi bowlers with five wickets.

Quali complete! Max secures P3 with a strong performanceLiam faces a tough P18 after a challenging sessionnoitepg, missing crucial practice in FP3. But we’re ready to come back stronger! #F1