George Russell demonstrated the superiority that Mercedes exude at this start of the Formula 1 season by scoring the pole position of the Australian Grand Prix with a time of 1:18.518. Kimi Antonelli, his teammate, completes the first starting line after qualifying 293 thousandths behind the Briton.
The Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) y Carlos Sainz (Williams), with many problems, they will start from 17th and penultimate place, respectively.
Hadjar, the big surprise of the day
The Frenchman Isack Hadjar, one of the great protagonists of the day, will take to the track tomorrow Albert Park in third position with his Red Bull after qualifying almost eight tenths behind Russell, sneaking ahead of both the Ferrari of Monegasque Charles Leclerc and the McLaren of Oscar Piastri.
The current world champion, the Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren), finished sixth, almost a second behind his compatriot, even with the consequences of the incident with the fan in Antonelli’s car, which affected his left front wheel in Q3.
Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) will start seventh on the grid ahead of the New Zealander Liam Lawson, who showed the good feelings of the Racing Bulls at the start of the campaign.
Alonso confirms Aston Martin’s predictions and Sainz stays in the box
Fernando Alonso touched the ‘mini miracle’ with his fragile Aston Martin, while Carlos Sainz could not even go out on the track after the problems suffered in the third free practice session, so he will be penultimate on the grid tomorrow.
Regarding the development of the qualifying session, in Q1 the Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto He set the reference time with his Audi in the first minutes of the session (1:20.495) until the Briton George Russell gave the opportune stroke of authority shortly after with the first lap that fell below 1:20 in qualifying (1.19.840).
Even so, the times were still relatively slow times with respect to the records recorded in the last free practice session. The track was still relatively cold and the tires were still feeling it at that contact.
However, the first surprise arose with just over seven minutes left in the opening quarter, as Max Verstappen (Red Bull) ended up crashing into the wall in Turn 1 of Albert Park, in an apparent locking of the rear wheels. With this, the four-time world champion had to abandon at the first opportunity while the session was stopped with the corresponding red flag.
At the restart, two other drivers were confirmed to remain in the box without even trying their luck, as was the case of the Williams by Carlos Sainz -problems in the electrical part- and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.
With that attitude, Alonso (Aston Martin) seemed like he could surprisingly sneak into Q2 despite the well-known list of problems listed with the power unit that your Honda engine presents.
However, agonizingly, Colapinto (Alpine) saved the furniture in the final moments, leaving the Asturian out of the next session. The Cadillacs of Mexican Pérez and Finnish Valtteri Bottas were also eliminated.
For his part, Hamilton pretended to set the best lap of Q1 (1:19.811) until Russell took the prize from him on his last lap (1:19.507).
In the second qualifying period, the Mercedes gave a new twist and it was their own George the first to break the barrier of 1:19 (1:18.934)putting ground in between the McLaren and the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar.
For their part, the Racing Bulls of Englishman Arvid Linblad and New Zealander Liam Lawson surprised by consolidating themselves as reliable and solvent cars for Q3, as did Bortoleto with his Audi who, however, was barely able to celebrate his feat as his car stopped at the entrance to the pit lane, leaving him anchored in tenth position without being able to fight in the last round.
Meanwhile, the German Nico Hulkenberg (Audi), Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon (Haas F1), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Alex Albon (Williams) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) were eliminated in this round.
The Mercedes scare in the first ‘qualy’ of the year
Q3 started in a more than bumpy way, after breaking off a piece of its ventilation system from Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes which, later, would affect the tire left front of the McLaren Lando Norris causing a new red flag.
With all this, Russell set the tone againalthough he started with a worse time than in the previous session (1:19.084), waiting for improvement in the second attempt, while Norris y Hadjar They provisionally appeared in the first places.
Antonelli took first place with a 1:18.811 but it was a short-lived mirage, since the one from Norfolk returned to the fray shortly after with a sidereal 1:18.518.
Among the rest of mortals, the French Hadjar sneaked into third and Leclerc benefited with fourth place against the discreet finish of the McLarens who qualified in fifth (Piastri) and sixth place (Norris).
