Qualifying duels: How Sainz has become the 'best' qualifier of 2023

With seven races down, one of the key indicators of performance between Formula 1 teammates, the qualifying duels, is starting to take shape.

With now 22 races in the 2023 calendar, which intra-team qualifying battle will result in a dead heat, and which will be the most one-sided?

Check out the head-to-heads after seven races below:

Sainz tops the highest average qualifying positions

Despite four pole positions to his name from the seven races, it is not championship leader Max Verstappen with the best average position.

His elimination in Q2 in Saudi Arabia after a driveshaft failure and P15 start – as well as a P9 in Miami – brings his average down to 4.3 for an average grid slot.

Instead, it is Carlos Sainz who enjoys the best average among the 20 drivers, with his average position being 4.0.

The one-time Grand Prix winner is also the only driver on the grid to qualify inside the top five at every race, securing one front row slot with second at his home event in Spain.

Elsewhere, there is a sizeable gap between the two Aston Martin drivers with Fernando Alonso's average being 4.4 for third best, with Lance Stroll's average being 9.6 and ninth fastest.

Among the big four teams, this is comfortably the biggest gap between teammates, while there is little to choose between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, with 6.7 and 7 respectively being their averages.

Tales of the stopwatch

Below is a slideshow of graphics detailing where each driver has qualified at each race.

Largely, drivers have qualified somewhere near their teammate when both cars have run healthily or one not ending up in a barrier.

One standout is that of Oscar Piastri at McLaren against now team leader Lando Norris.

Rookie Piastri replaced the burnout Daniel Ricciardo for 2023 and, although he has been out-qualified 6-1 by Norris (with that one being in Saudi Arabia when Norris exited in Q1 after hitting a wall), the Australian has performing extremely well.

Only on his debut in Bahrain and in Spain has Piastri been more than three places behind Norris.