F1: Leclerc takes pole position for Australian Grand Prix
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MELBOURNE, Australia –
A Ferrari versus Crimson Bull battle is shaping up because the probably situation on Sunday on the first Australian Grand Prix for the reason that pandemic started in 2020.
Charles Leclerc claimed Ferrari’s first pole place on the revamped Albert Park circuit since 2007 with a decisive closing lap of 1 minute, 17.868 seconds in Melbourne on Saturday.
However working shut behind have been the Crimson Bulls of world champion Max Verstappen, who certified .286 seconds behind, and Sergio Perez, who posted the third quickest time.
Leclerc and Verstappen have shared the opening two races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and can now begin alongside one another on the entrance row.
Aston Martin endured a troublesome session when each Sebastian Vettel, who certified 18th, and Montreal’s Lance Stroll crashed into partitions.
Stroll was additionally concerned in a collision within the opening qualifying session with Williams driver Nicholas Latifi of Montreal. Latifi and Stroll will begin in the back of the grid nineteenth and twentieth respectively.
Leclerc, whose teammate Carlos Sainz certified ninth, mentioned he had by no means felt solely snug on the circuit in earlier visits.
This continued by means of follow periods on Friday and Saturday. However in entrance of a file Saturday crowd of 123,247, he gambled by asking his Ferrari for extra in what was a dashing final lap as he took his second pole place of the season and the eleventh of his profession.
“It was a great lap. This time I took fairly an enormous danger, particularly on Flip 6, which was fairly tough,” Leclerc mentioned. “I’m very pleased with the lap, particularly on a observe like this the place I’ve at all times struggled prior to now, and likewise by means of practices, regardless that we have been aggressive.”
Nonetheless, neither Leclerc nor Verstappen expressed nice confidence after qualifying, with the Ferrari driver predicting a good race.
“I believe we’re very shut with Crimson Bull. It’s going to be shut tomorrow,” Leclerc mentioned.
Verstappen set the problem for Leclerc late in Q3. However he was removed from pleased with the best way his Crimson Bull had carried out, saying it was a wrestle.
“It has been horrible for me the entire weekend. It’s simply not a great stability,” he mentioned. “I’ve spent the entire weekend chasing one thing and I by no means felt snug for one lap, besides the lengthy runs.”
The closest challenger to McLaren and Crimson Bull was McLaren’s Lando Norris, .835 seconds slower than Leclerc.
In qualifying fifth, .957 seconds behind Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton’s streak of six straight pole positions within the Australian Grand Prix is over.
The seven-time world champion described the primary two days as difficult however believes Mercedes took a step ahead.
“I believe we’ve got extracted essentially the most from the automotive at the moment. That may be a constructive. I’m naturally additionally gutted I wasn’t in a position to extract somewhat extra,” Hamilton mentioned.
Mercedes teammate George Russell completed simply behind Hamilton in sixth. Australian hope Daniel Ricciardo certified seventh in his McLaren forward of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Double world champion Fernando Alonso regarded set to problem for pole place in his Alpine. However the 40-year-old Spanish driver misplaced management on Flip 11 and crashed, drawing a crimson flag with slightly below seven minutes remaining in Q3.
“I used to be most likely doing my greatest weekend for years, most likely combating for pole place,” Alonso mentioned.
On the finish of the primary qualifying session, Latifi pulled off to let Stroll move earlier than accelerating to re-pass Stroll on the run to the sixth flip. Stroll appeared to not see his countryman and in shifting over, made contact with Latifi.
“For me, it is fairly clear. I’ve simply seen the video,” Latifi mentioned on the F1 web site. “I simply tried to go off-line to organize my out-lap and it appeared like he simply become me as soon as I used to be alongside him.
“I let him by means of as a result of he was pushing to open a lap, or so I used to be advised, then I noticed he aborted the lap, so I needed to get carried on with my very own preparation lap, so I went again by him. Clearly it was an enormous hole and as soon as I form of received previous him, for no matter cause he determined to show.”
Race stewards handed Stroll a three-place grid drop in addition to two penalty factors after concluding Stroll to be “predominantly responsible for the collision due to his lack of situational consciousness of (Latifi’s) passing manoeuvre.”
“It is a disgrace that we had a horrible day,” Stroll advised F1. “It was a really awkward state of affairs, what occurred on that cool-down lap. Nicholas let me go after which the observe falls to the suitable there and as he accelerated. The timing was simply actually unhealthy I assume. That is what precipitated the collision.”
In a significant renovation to the observe, 5 corners have been reprofiled and two have been eliminated fully.
After two races, Leclerc leads the championship with 45 factors, adopted by Sainz on 33 and Verstappen with 25.