Judging by the first three practice sessions at the Albert Park Circuit, four teams seemed to have realistic aspirations of fighting for the top positions in the qualifying session for the 2022 Australian Grand Prix. Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull – for obvious reasons – and Alpine given their speed all weekend and McLaren in final practice.
One team with a lot of work to do just to join that top eight are Mercedes, who haven’t threatened quick times at all in this start of the 2022 Formula One season.
Kevin Magnussen was the first out on track in the Haas, who had some work to do to exit this segment. Charles Leclerc soon followed and the Ferrari driver was able ti get straight away into the 1:19s, as Charles Leclerc got a solid first lap on the board. Carlos Sainz had to back out of his lap at the end due to yellow flags, while Lando Norris was 0.4s off in the McLaren. With just a few minutes to go until the end of Q1, Nicolas Latifi and Lance Stroll came together, as the session was suspended with red flags. For the second qualifying in a row, Nicholas Latifi crashed in Q1. This gave Aston Martin the pooportunity to get Sebastian Vettel out on track, as the mechanics were able to finish the repairs after his big crash in the third practice session. The former Ferrari driver did post a lap but it was only good enough for 18th, understandable given his lack of running this weekend! Albon (Williams), Magnussen (Haas), Vettel (Aston Martin), Latifi (Williams) and Stroll (Aston Martin) were eliminated.
Max Verstappen hit the front with a 1:18.611 at the start of Q2, while his closest rival was Fernando Alonso! The Ferrari cars were only fourth and seventh, although their first laps were set on used tyres. Soon after, the Red Bull of Sergio Perez took the teal but it was also confirmed that would be investigated after the session for failing to slow for double yellow flags from the Q1 crash.
He has made it to Q3 in every race since joining Mercedes, but in his third race in the Alfa-Romeo, Valtteri Bottas was out in Q2, alongside Gasly (AlphaTauri), Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Zhou (Alfa Romeo) and Schumacher (Haas). Ferrari pair Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top three, with Max Verstappen fourth fastest in Q2.
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Ahead of the final qualifying stage, the Monegasque driver asked his Ferrari race engineer to change his visors, as he choose to use the darkest visor. In Q3, Fernando Alonso was on a stonking first lap after having been fast all weekend, but the Spanish driver lost the car in the final sector, as the red flag came out. Charles Leclerc had managed the fastest overall time in the first three minutes of Q3 before the red flag came out, setting a 1:18.239, with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen are second and third respectively. Unfortunately for Carlos Sainz, the Spanish driver had to back out of his first run, which was on par with Charles’ lap.
Six minutes were left in the final shootout as Q3 was back underway. Sergio Perez’s first lap time was just 0.001s off Charles, but then Max Verstappen goes fastest. There was time for one final response from Charles Leclerc and what a lap it was from the Monegasque driver to secure pole position for the 2022 Australian Grand Prix! Charles whacks in a 1:17.868 on his final effort, nearly three tenths ahead of Max Verstappen to start from P1 on Sunday! This is Charles’s eleventh pole position (second this year so far).
A disappointing final run for Carlos, who will start P9 tomorrow and will have to make up a lot of ground.
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