Aus Quali: Charles Pole, RedBull P2, P3

Charles Leclerc beats Max Verstappen to take pole for F1 GP in Australia.

Charles on Pole in Australia

LeClerc beat RedBull rival Max Verstappen by 0.286 seconds. The F1 race in Australia was cancelled just hours before the race was about to start in 2020. Since then the 2021 race was cancelled too. So Australia will witness racing after three years.

Max had sat the initial benchmark pace in his Red Bull on the final runs in Q3. However, Charles responded with his final lap to beat the reigning world champion and claim his second pole of the season. This is 11th Pole for Charles and first non-Mercedes driver to snag a pole since 2013.

RedBull drivers doing well in Australia

Sergio Perez was third-quickest and nearly four-tenths off the pace. Both the RedBulls look in good touch and expect them to give a strong fight to Charles. The other Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, had a disaster of a Quali session. He looked in good form to challenge for the pole. However in Q3 his first hot lap got deleted due red flag being waved just before he crossed the finishing line. Then there were starter issue because of which he had to do a hot lap on cold tyres and thus couldn’t stitch a neat lap.

Great comeback from McLaren

Lando Norris pulled off a P4 out-of-nowhere in his papaya McLaren, who were struggling to even get out of Q1 in Saudi Arabia. Team-mate and home hero Daniel Ricciardo managed to get a P7. In between were the two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton at P5 and George Russell at P6. While Mercedes are still struggling with some fundamental issues in the car, they are optimising to the limit and staying ahead of the mid-field.

Alonso on a flyer

Fernando Alonso was in supreme form, consistently in the top 5 in all the Practice sessions, as well as in Quali. He was on a scintillating lap in Q3, managing a purple sector but then he pushed too far and shunted his car, ending the dreams of putting Alpine on Pole. He will be starting from P10. Team-mate Ocon will be starting P8.

Australia GP starting grid. Charles on Pole.