Red Bull looked to make it 3 Poles from 3 at a windy Albert Park
Q1
In Qualifying 1; Oscar Piastri, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez were the five slowest drivers. It was a disappointing day for Oscar Piastri at his home circuit as he just struggled to be on the pace of his teammate. Zhou Guanyu didn’t have a good day, but at least he built his teammate whilst Logan Sargeant continued to make mistakes. Logan looks like a quick driver, but he needs to iron out his mistakes. Valtteri Bottas had a really bad Qualifying as he put the slowest timed lap on the board whilst the big story of Q1 saw Sergio Perez beach his car in the gravel trap at turn 3 resulting in him Qualifying last without a lap on the board. What a disaster! Max Verstappen topped the session by under 3 tenths from Mercedes’ George Russell. Interesting.
Q2
In Qualifying 2; Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Kevin Magnussen and Nyck de Vries all failed to make it into the top 10 shootout. Esteban Ocon will be really disappointed to have missed out on Q3, particularly given the fact that he ended the session just 7 thousandths of P10. Yuki Tsunoda can be pretty happy with himself as he performed well in Qualifying whilst Lando Norris could only manage 13th. There are clearly still some issues that McLaren need to resolve. Kevin Magnussen really struggled and he was over 7 tenths off his teammate in Q2 whilst Nyck de Vries made his first Q2 appearance for Alpha Tauri. Max Verstappen topped Q2 over Fernando Alonso by over 2 tenths of a second.
Q3
In Qualifying 3, Max Verstappen pulled out a massive 1:16.732 to take his second Pole position of the season. He struggled for the first part of the session, but his second lap was sublime. George Russell was also sublime as he put his Mercedes on the front row whilst his teammate Lewis Hamilton came in P3. Good day for Mercedes-Benz. Fernando Alonso will be slightly disappointed with 4th place, but it’s still pretty good and the same can be said for Carlos Sainz who put in his best performance of the season. Lance Stroll could only manage P6 in his Aston Martin whilst Charles Leclerc had an uncharacteristically mediocre Qualifying session as he only managed 7th. Alex Albon did brilliantly to put his Williams on the fourth row of the grid whilst Alpine’s Pierre Gasly can be content with his performance. Nico Hulkenberg also did a good job for Haas.
Starting Grid for the Australian Grand Prix and my Qualifying Grades
Max Verstappen: 10
George Russell: 10
Lewis Hamilton: 9
Fernando Alonso: 8
Carlos Sainz: 7
Lance Stroll: 6
Charles Leclerc: 5
Alex Albon: 10
Pierre Gasly: 8
Nico Hulkenberg: 8
Esteban Ocon: 6
Yuki Tsunoda: 7
Lando Norris: 5
Kevin Magnussen: 4
Nyck de Vries: 4
Oscar Piastri: 2
Zhou Guanyu: 2
Logan Sargeant: 2
Valtteri Bottas: 1
Sergio Perez: 1
My Predictions for the Australian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen
George Russell
Fernando Alonso
Lewis Hamilton
Sergio Perez
Commenti