Charles Leclerc Storms To Pole For Ferrari In F1's Return To Australia

Ferrari continued its resurgence as Charles Leclerc stormed to pole position by almost 3 tenths from Max Verstappen's Red Bull in F1's return to Australia after a hiatus of 2 years. The remodeled Albert Park circuit paid home to a fascinating qualifying session that saw Red Bull's Sergio Perez come in P3. The biggest losers of the session were the Spaniards. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr who couldn't put together a decent lap on the final run after his first run in Q3 got hindered by a red flag thanks to the crash by Fernando Alonso who was set for a surprise pole in the Alpine. Sainz just managed P9 while Alonso capped up the top 10.

Lando Norris managed P4 for McLaren as the Woking-based team showed signs of pace. 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton managed P5 was Mercedes and was followed by his teammate George Russell in P6. Daniel Ricciardo in his home race managed P7 for McLaren while Esteban Ocon was the lead Alpine in P8.

The qualifying session was mostly dominated by the Ferrari of Leclerc

Gasly for AlphaTauri managed P11 ahead of Tsunoda in P13. The duo was split by Valtteri Bottas in P12 for Alfa Romeo whose teammate Guanyu Zhou managed P14. Mick Schumacher out qualified an out of sorts Kevin Magnussen for Haas as they came P15 and P17 respectively. Alex Albon was the lead Williams in P16 while Latifi crashed during the session as he attempted to overtake Lance Stroll's Aston Martin for better track position.

Sebastian Vettel was the final car to qualify in P18 for Aston Martin which also only happened thanks to the red flag caused by the Latifi-Stroll crash as his team hadn't managed to fix his car after his practice 3 crash.

Times

1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.868
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.286s
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull+ 0.372s
4 Lando Norris McLaren +0.835s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.957s
6 George Russell Mercedes +1.065s
7 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +1.164s
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +1.193s
9 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +1.540s
10 Fernando Alonso Alpine no time
11 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1:19.226
12 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Racing 1:19.410
13 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:19.424
14 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo Racing 1:20.155
15 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:20.465
16 Alex Albon Williams 1:20.135
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:20.254
18 Sebastian Vettel 1:21.149
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:21.372
20 Lance Stroll Aston Martin