A bittersweet end to Quali for Ferrari: Charles Leclerc will be starting from P1 after beating the two Red Bulls around Albert Park this afternoon, while Carlos Sainz will have to climb his way up from P9 tomorrow. A disastrous session for the Astons, who came out late after the crashes in FP3 and a lost chance for Fernando Alonso who ended up into the wall while on a good lap due to some issues on his Alpine.

An action packed qualifying in Melbourne, that saw two halts for red flags and quite a bit of work for the stewards.


Q1

Busy pitlane as the first session kicks off with most teams heading out immediatly.

It’s Kevin Magnussen’s the first timed lap of this qualifying: a 1m21.243s that is quickly beaten by Charles Lercerc’s Ferrari. Fastest time for his teammate Carlos Sainz, ahead of Perez, while Max Verstappen goes fourth on his first attempt.

 A lock up for Nicholas Latifi who ends up into a half-spin around Turn 11, a bit of trouble for Tsunoda in Turn 10.

Leclerc takes the lead again with Verstappen following closely, while Valtteri Bottas goes fifth ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Fifteen minutes into the session Lance Stroll finally heads out, while the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel is still in the garage.

Meanwhile on track it’s a Red Bull front row, with Verstappen leading with a 1m18.580s and the two Mercedes behind in P10 and P11, a whole second off the RB18s.

The silver arrows are on warm-up stroll on C5 soft tyres, while an unsafe release is noted by the stewards for Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri.

A red flag is waved as Latifi and Stroll collide around Turn 5, leaving the Williams with a lot of damage as Latifi spins and hits the barrier.

🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Latifi and Stroll collide in the first sector and both are out of qualifying#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/lhb5OHUKM7

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 9, 2022

The collision will be investigated at the end of qualifying.

Drivers at risk are Magnussen, Zhou, Latifi, Stroll and Vettel when the session resumes with a little over 2 minutes to go.

The German is finally out for late run, as cars from P8 down race out of the pitlane for one last try. Gasly is the only one managing to improve and moves up to P10, while Vettel’s first timed lap puts him in P18 just ahead of the two Canadians.

 

Out in Q1: P16 Albon, P17 Magnussen, P18 Vettel, P19 Latifi, P20 Stroll. Albon will drop three places due to a grid penalty picked up from his crash with Stroll at the Saudi Arabian GP.

Q2

A delayed start for Q2 as Albon stops on track just before Turn 13.

Verstappen is the first one out and sets a 1m18.611s, behind him are the two Mercedes, Perez and Schumacher. 

Russell goes off at Turn 11 causing yellow flags to be waived. Sergio Perez gets noted by the stewards for failing to slow down under the yellows, but goes fastest on his second try: 1m18.340s, quickest time of the weekend up until now.

Only P9 for Lewis Hamilton, while the Ferrari are out on Softs and it’s fastest lap for Leclerc 0.266s ahead of Perez’s Red Bull.
At the bottom of the time-sheet Ocon, Bottas, Zhou, Schumacher and Tsunoda are battling for a place in Q3.

And it’s Esteban Ocon who makes it, as he pushes Gasly down to P11.

Q3

The sun is starting to get lower in Melbourne, as cars head out for the last session of qualifying, with Hamilton and Verstappen sporting darker visors.

First timed lap is Verstappen’s who manages a 1m18.399s after a lock-up, beaten by teammate for only a 0.001s. Only Alonso yet to come out on track and as he does Leclerc moves up to P1 with a 1m18.239s. 

The Ferrari manages to cross the line just on time, as the session is halted by another red flag.

It’s Fernando Alonso’s Alpine that has hit the wall as he reports a hydraulic failure, that didn’t allow him to downshift, on the radio.
Quite a high speed impact for the Spaniard, but he is well.

Alonso is out of the car and appears to be okay 👍

He had just set the fastest middle sector of all, but his crash pauses the clock with seven minutes to go #AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/PcmbC3dOgG

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 9, 2022

The session is resumed with 7 minutes to go and the first to rejoin are the two Mercedes, followed two minutes later by Leclerc and Perez. It’s a close battle at the front, with Verstappen taking provisional pole with a 1m18.154s lap. 

But ultimately it’s Charles Lerclerc who takes the Pole position with a 1m17.868s. While it’s a P3 for Perez, Sainz only manages to close the session back in 9th.