With a blistering performance at Albert Park, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won the first Australian Grand Prix pole position since 2019 – with Max Verstappen lining up second on the grid for Sunday’s race and Sergio Perez provisionally third.
Before Saturday’s FP3 – which was clinched by Lando Norris – the new layout lost a DRS zone, and final practice saw both Aston Martins crash and several drivers go off-track.
Verstappen topped Q1 and Red Bull teammate Perez topped Q2 – the Mexican driver is under investigation for failing to halt for a caution in Q1 – but Ferrari rebounded and it was Leclerc who aced the top 10 shootout with a time of 1m 17.868s, keeping Verstappen 0.286s behind in P2.
Lando Norris made his first Q3 appearance of the season in P4 – his teammate Daniel Ricciardo started eighth at home. Perez finished third by 0.372s.
Lewis Hamilton was in P5 and George Russell was in P6 between the McLarens, and Esteban Ocon was in P8 behind Ricciardo.
Carlos Sainz was a surprise P9 for Ferrari in Q3, 1.540s slower than his teammate.
Fernando Alonso fell out in Q3 due to a suspected hydraulics failure, ending his stellar season and securing Alpine a provisional P10.
Pierre Gasly finished P11, just ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who finished P12 for Alfa Romeo after a string of 103 Q3 appearances. Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, and Mick Schumacher all failed to finish Q2.
After a red flag delayed proceedings late in Q1, Williams’ Alex Albon (P16, but with a three-place grid reduction from Jeddah hanging over him for Sunday) and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (P17) failed to qualify.
Lance Stroll collided with Williams’ Nicholas Latifi at Turn 5 in Q1, knocking both out of the first phase in an uncomfortable high-speed collision, adding insult to injury for Aston Martin after a miserable weekend so far. While the stewards deliberated, they took a provisional 19th and 20th.
Sebastian Vettel’s mechanics were able to fix his Aston Martin following his FP3 collision, and he emerged with two minutes remaining in Q1 to take P18 on the provisional grid.