Apr 10

Apr 10 Charles Leclerc tops dramatic qualifying at Australian Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc came out on top of a tightly-fought qualifying session to claim pole position for the Australian Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix. *(Scuderia Ferrari)*

The Ferrari driver bested Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who will start behind Leclerc, while teammate Carlos Sainz could only manage ninth after a red flag just metres away from the finish line wiped his time.

"I’m happy with my result today," said Leclerc.

"This circuit is really tricky and I've always struggled here in the past."
"It may not have seemed like it this weekend because we’ve been quite fast, but I’ve done a lot of work to optimise my performance."

Charles Leclerc on track at the Australian Grand Prix. *(FIA)*

The session was a nail-biter, with Ferrari, Red Bull, and Alpine drivers all swapping the top spot throughout.

Verstappen topped Q1 while Perez led Q2, with interruptions throughout, but it was Ferrari who came out on top in Q3.

"The team did a great job," said Leclerc.

"We stayed calm at all times, despite red flags, yellow flags and traffic."

"The biggest limitation for me was the sun."

"It was low and at an inconvenient angle and it was almost impossible to see where I was in Q2 and most of Q3."

"I took a lot of risks and I’m glad that I managed to put together such a good lap in the end."

"It doesn’t look too bad in terms of race pace."

"It’s very close with our competitors so it will be a difficult but exciting race tomorrow."

It appeared Sebastian Vettel would not make it to the track in time for qualifying after a crash in FP3, but an incident between Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll gave Aston Martin the time they needed to send out Vettel for a timed lap.

Despite their hard work it was a nightmare session for Aston Martin, with Latifi and Stroll making contact while both on slow laps, sending the Williams driver into the wall and Stroll trundling back to pit lane with a broken front-right corner.

Stroll was found to be at fault and handed a three-place grid drop, sending him to the rear of the field for Sunday's Grand Prix.

Latifi’s teammate Alex Albon, already carrying a three-place grid penalty, was disqualified from qualifying after running out of fuel at the end of the red-flagged session.

Fernando Alonso had been running at the front of the pack for most of FP3, and was contending for the fastest lap of Q3 when he had a hydraulics issue into turn 11, sending him into the barrier.

McLaren had a much improved qualifying session, with Lando Norris up to fourth on the grid in his first Q3 appearance of the season.

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo will start his home grand prix from seventh on the grid.

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Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix - Qualifying Results