Australian Grand Prix – Charles Leclerc on pole ahead of the Red Bulls

Q1:

Two hours after the last free practice session, the 20 drivers took to the track again for the qualifying session. Once again, it was Red Bull and Ferrari who dominated the top positions on the timing sheet. Max Verstappen led Sergio Perez by 2.5 tenths of a second, while Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were three and four tenths of a second behind respectively. The red cars once again suffered greatly from aquaplaning, with “crazy” bounces according to Carlos Sainz on the radio.

Behind, Fernando Alonso is once again “the best of the rest”, setting the fifth fastest time, showing that Alpine is in good shape this weekend. McLaren also continues its comeback. After Norris’ impressive performance in FP3, the British driver clocked the seventh fastest time and comfortably advances to Q2. It was a tougher challenge for Ricciardo, who also makes it through with the twelfth fastest lap time. As for Mercedes, the car still appears to be unstable, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton posting anonymous eighth and ninth fastest times.”

The session was interrupted for a long time after a major crash between Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin driver squeezed his compatriot to the edge of the track, even though both Canadians were not on a flying lap. An accident that will cost Aston Martin dearly as they were unable to complete a flying lap and will start in last position.

DRAPEAU ROUGE 🟥

Incident et Crash Stroll / Latifi ! Pilotes OK.#AusGP #AustralianGP 🇦🇺

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— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) April 9, 2022

Sebastian Vettel, on the other hand, left the pits two minutes before the end of the session, greatly assisted by the red flag caused by his teammate as the mechanics were not finished preparing his car. The German, lacking practice, still managed to go out in Q1 with the 18th fastest time.

At Williams, in addition to Latifi’s accident and significant damage to his car, Alex Albon failed to make it to Q2 and the Thai driver experienced a problem right at the end of the session, preventing him from bringing his car back to the pits.

Eliminated in Q1:
16. Alex Albon (Williams)
17. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
18. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
19. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
20. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

Q2:

Sergio Perez is the fastest in this second qualifying session. The Mexican driver is ahead of the two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc, as well as his teammate Max Verstappen. The stewards will have to monitor Perez closely as he is under investigation for not slowing down under a yellow flag. Behind them, the hierarchy is clearly forming with only five teams represented in Q3, each with their two drivers: Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, and Alpine.

For Mercedes, it was once again more difficult for Lewis Hamilton, once again behind Russell, but the young Briton took a trip through the gravel trap. The seven-time world champion was hindered in a flying lap by Max Verstappen.

On the eliminated side, it doesn’t work out for Pierre Gasly, who fails at the doorstep of the top 10, nor for Valtteri Bottas (12th) who puts an end to his incredible streak of 103 consecutive Q3 appearances. A more difficult weekend for Haas and Alfa Romeo, the pleasant surprises of the early season.

Eliminated in Q2:

11. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
12. Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
13. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
14. Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
15. Mick Schumacher (Haas)

Q3:

From the first lap, the Red Bull cars are extremely close to each other, with only a small thousandth separating them in favor of Perez. However, Leclerc sets the fastest time just as the session is interrupted by a red flag. Launching into a blazing lap, Fernando Alonso suffers a failure in his car and crashes into the wall.

Fernando Alonso dans le mur.

Pilote OK.#AusGP🇦🇺

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— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) April 9, 2022

At the restart, there were six minutes left for the drivers to set their lap times. Once again, it’s just a thousandth that will separate the top two, this time to the disadvantage of Sergio Perez who fails to take provisional pole position from Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque ultimately finishes ahead of Max Verstappen by three tenths and Sergio Perez. Lando Norris achieves a very impressive fourth place on the grid, just ahead of the Mercedes. The disappointment comes from Carlos Sainz, who made a mistake in his second flying lap and will only start ninth.

The timetable: