On Sunday, Charles Leclerc will start the F1 Australian Grand Prix on pole position. The Monegask set the fastest time in 1:17,868 in a qualifying that went to a thousandth of a second in the final phase. Max Verstappen will start from P2 ahead of teammate Sergio Perez at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne
Qualifying was opened by quite a few teams, the first time being recorded was behind Kevin Magnussen’s name in 1:21.243. Charles Leclerc went over that and tightened the Dane’s time to 1:1:19.391 ahead of Lando Norris in his Mercedes, meanwhile Red Bull had started qualifying. Verstappen’s first achievement was the second time behind Leclerc in the first 10 minutes. The Dutchman thus came 0.044 seconds. Valtteri Bottas closed in P5 with Fernando Alonso behind him.
In the second run it was Red Bull who set fast times, Max Verstappen took the lead in a time of 1:18.580, Sergio Perez followed his teammate. Leclerc closed the top 3. However, the session was rocked by a red flag situation caused by Nicholas Latifi who collided with Lance Stroll at Turn 5. The interruption allowed Aston Martin’s mechanics to repair Sebastian Vettel’s car in time after his problems in FP3.
F1 Australian Grand Prix FP3 : Lando Norris as fastest man towards qualifying
Verstappen advanced to Q2 fastest ahead of Perez and Leclerc. Alex Albon, who was not through, seemed to have bad luck in the last meters as the Alpha Tauri driver stopped next to the track.
For the drivers Nicholas Latifi, Lance Stroll Sebastian Vettel. Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon the curtain fell in Q1
Max Verstappen opened the attack in Q2 with the fastest time for the time being in 1:18.611. Sergio Perez was able to compete in the RB18 and came up just short. However, the Mexican was sidelined by Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc had ended up in P4 after the first shelling while George Russell was badly affected by Porpoisingen and scooted off the track without too much trouble. The young Briton had the 12th fastest time.
With just under 67 minutes left in the session, Sergio Perez had moved up to P1 at the expense of Verstappen. Alonso followed the Red Bull duo followed by Alonso in the Alpine. Meanwhile, Ferrari was on track to set fast times. Carlos Sainz was at the time in P8 behind Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren. The Spaniard set the third fastest time behind Verstappen. The other Ferrari, driven by Leclerc, came after a fast lap in a time of 1:18.606 under the time of Verstappen and thus took P2 as the final phase of Q2 started. Yet Sainz came through again and so Perez went on to Q3 fastest with 2 Ferraris behind him
The last part of qualifying was missed by Mick Schumacher, Guanzi Zhou, Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon
It was all about tensing in Melbourne in the last part of qualifying. The entire field except for Alonso immediately sprang into action on the track that was slowly cooling down by the setting sun. Max Verstappen lost some time because it went big but still scored 1:18.399. Due to the mistake, Sergio Perez was able to record the fastest time with a lead of 0.001 seconds over the Dutchman. Daniel Ricciardo was third behind this one and would drop one position as Charles Leclerc rocketed to P1 on a flying lap in 1:18.239. At that moment, the red flag was waved because of an Alpine standing still.
Fernando Alonso was unlucky, the Spaniard came to a standstill against the wall at Turn 11 with technical problems. It appeared that Alonso was unable to shift gears and slow down enough to make a crash inevitable. The Spaniard himself was unharmed.
The lights went green and the qualifying final could start in the battle for pole position. Everyone was on the track by now and their eyes were on the timekeeping board. Sergio Perez had started a fast lap and finished it in 1:18.240 putting the driver one thousandth behind Leclerc who had 1:18.239. Verstappen was now on his way and was faster compared to his teammate. The Dutchman drove 1:18.154, but this was not enough for the Limburger. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc went under the time of Verstappen in 1:17.868
Australian Grand Prix qualifying results 2022
