Charles Leclerc took his second pole of the season in Australia after denying Max Verstappen with his final effort in qualifying.
Leclerc’s best time of a 1’17.868 was enough to secure pole by almost three tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen. Sergio Perez took a provisional third place, but is under investigation for allegedly failing to slow under yellow flags in Q2. Carlos Sainz Jnr will start ninth on the grid after a red flag cancelled his first Q3 time and he made a mistake in his only timed lap.
Q1
The skies around the Albert Park circuit had turned overcast by the time the green light at the pitlane signalled the start of the first qualifying session in Melbourne for three years.
Carlos Sainz Jnr set the early pace with a 1’19.179, ahead of Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Then Leclerc went quickest by breaking into the 1’18s, with Verstappen improving to go within half a tenth of the Ferrari.
Nicholas Latifi almost hit the wall on the exit of turn 11…