Leclerc Takes Pole in Dramatic Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Session

Charles Leclerc has taken pole position for the second time in three races ahead of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, and will line up ahead of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez on the grid.

Q1 – An unfortunate crash ends the session

The first part of qualifying at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne saw Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s day go from bad to worse; when Lance Stroll crashed for the second time in the afternoon.

Stroll and Sebastian Vettel both damaged their Aston Martin cars in Free Practice Three and were running out of time to set a time in Qualifying One. Stroll was able to make it out on to the track, but did not look likely to set a time before the flag would wave. A miscommunication between himself and Nicolas Latifi saw the Williams F1 Team driver allow the Canadian past him, before re-overtaking him for track position. Stroll moved across into the path of Latifi, hitting the Williams and causing a lot of damage.

The Aston Martin car broke its front-right suspension in what was very similar damage to that from Free Practice 3 (but on the other side of the car), while the damage to Latifi’s car was much greater, in what is the second qualifying accident in a row for the Canadian Williams driver.

This accident brought out the red flag, which gave the Aston Martin mechanics enough time to send Vettel out on track, having missed the opportunity prior. However, the effort was not enough as the German was unable to move himself out of Qualifying One.

The drivers eliminated in the first qualifying – from sixteenth to twentieth – were: Alexander Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Vettel, Latifi and Stroll.

Q2 – The end of an excellent run for Valtteri Bottas

Qualifying Two was a lot less dramatic than that of the first session, but did see an impressive chain of Qualifying Three appearances for Valtteri Bottas unfortunately come to an end.

Pierre Gasly would be the first driver to miss out on the third and final qualifying session, putting his Scuderia AlphaTauri in eleventh place on the grid. Bottas will line up for Sunday’s race alongside the Frenchman in twelfth place, ahead of the other AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda, the other Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN car of Zhou Guanyu, who impressively finished in fourteenth; as well as Mick Schumacher, who out-qualified his team-mate in fifteenth place.

Q3 – An unfortunate crash prevents surprise Alonso front row

Fernando Alonso was looking incredibly quick at the start of the final session of qualifying, and set a purple middle sector before crashing into the wall at turn eleven. The Spaniard explained over the radio that he lost his hydraulics and was unable to change gear, but also got a wheel on the grass before the slide started. The accident was very unfortunate for BWT Alpine F1 Team as the pace the double-world champion had was certainly enough to challenge for pole position.

After the red flag was cleared, Verstappen took provisional pole with a lap that didn’t see an improvement in the first and second sector. Leclerc would soon beat this time almost three tenths faster than the current world champion.

This time would not be beaten, as Pérez remained in third place after his final run, and Lando Norris put his McLaren F1 Team car in an impressive fourth place. Lewis Hamilton would put his Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team car in fifth place, an improvement upon his unlucky session in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, but still over nine-tenths of a second behind the pole time of Leclerc.

George Russell will start Sunday’s race alongside his team-mate in sixth place, while Daniel Ricciardo set a time good enough for seventh; in what was an excellent qualifying for McLaren and huge performance improvement.

Esteban Ocon put his Alpine in eighth place, while Carlos Sainz Jr. could only put his Scuderia Ferrari car in ninth after bad timing with the red flag and two bad laps at the end of the session. Alonso was unable to set a time and will start tenth.

The full qualifying results can be found below:

POS	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3	LAPS
1	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:18.881	1:18.606	1:17.868	21
2	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:18.580	1:18.611	1:18.154	21
3	11	Sergio Pérez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:18.834	1:18.340	1:18.240	21
4	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:19.280	1:19.066	1:18.703	20
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:19.401	1:19.106	1:18.825	28
6	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:19.405	1:19.076	1:18.933	26
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:19.665	1:19.130	1:19.032	22
8	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:19.605	1:19.136	1:19.061	23
9	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	SPA	Scuderia Ferrari	1:18.983	1:18.469	1:19.408	22
10	14	Fernando Alonso	SPA	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:19.192	1:18.815	No Time	15
11	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:19.580	1:19.226		19
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	1:19.251	1:19.410		13
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:19.742	1:19.424		17
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	CHN	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	1:19.910	1:20.155		16
15	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Haas F1 Team	1:20.104	1:20.465		19
16	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Williams F1 Team	1:20.135			11
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:20.254			11
18	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:21.149			3
19	6	Nicolas Latifi	CAN	Williams F1 Team	1:21.372			8
20	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	No Time			2

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