Lando Norris stormed to pole position in Melbourne (Image: Getty)
pipped team-mate to pole position in the Australian Grand Prix as locked out the front row ahead of . ended the session P7 and P8 after a difficult outing at the Albert Park Circuit. The rookies were subjected to a baptism of fire in Q1.
Kimi Antonelli’s was sparking intensely on his first run, and he failed to improve enough on his second, ultimately suffering an exit after Gabriel Bortoleto pipped him at the end of the session. Liam Lawson was also knocked out in Q1. The New Zealander’s FP3 running was curtailed earlier in the day, and he made errors on two of his flying laps, including a trip through the grass on his final run.
The Q2 fight at the front was another showdown between the two drivers, but had problems further back. Charles Leclerc and were only fifth and sixth, respectively, after their final runs, comfortably slower than their rivals.
Hamilton, who was pushing hard to match his team-mate’s times, spun in the final sector on his last lap but managed to avoid the wall. This slip-up hampered a number of drivers behind him, attempting to climb out of the bottom five.
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Oscar Piastri was forced to settle for P2 on Saturday (Image: Getty)
did not enjoy a perfect start to Q3. Norris’ first lap was deleted for a track limit violation, while home hero Piastri made a mistake in the final sector. Verstappen was the provisional polesitter, but the Brit was unstoppable on his final tour as he stormed to pole position.
Further back, there were two major shocks as and placed their cars on the third row of the grid. Those upsets bumped Leclerc and Hamilton down to P7 and P8, capping off a miserable day for the Scuderia.
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Full qualifying results for Australian Grand Prix…
1. ()
2. Oscar Piastri ()
3. ()
4. ()
5. (Racing Bulls)
6. (Williams)
7. Charles Leclerc ()
8. ()
9. (Alpine)
10. (Williams)
11. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
12. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
13. (Aston Martin)
14. Jack Doohan (Alpine)
15. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
16. Kimi Antonelli ()
17. (Sauber)
18. Liam Lawson ()
19. (Haas)
20. Oliver Bearman (Haas)