Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc overcame a dramatic Qualifying session to claim pole position for 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
Having finished second in FP3 which was disrupted by two red flags, Leclerc overcame two separate red flag incidents in Qualifying to clinch his second pole of the season and Ferrari’s first in Melbourne since 2007.
Leclerc’s main title rival – Max Verstappen meanwhile was second fastest ahead of his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez as Lando Norris qualified fourth after topping FP3.
Now here is a full roundup of FP3 and Qualifying for 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
FP3
Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou was first out on track but it was Lando Norris who set the initial benchmark time of 1m 21.247 on softs, which was soon bettered by Verstappen, Perez and Leclerc with the latter pair further improving on their second fliers.
Carlos Sainz went top in the 18th minute with 1m 20.390 just 0.009 seconds faster than Daniel Ricciardo but Fernando Alonso sprung a surprise a minute later, as the Spaniard put his Alpine top with 1m 20.119 just before Sebastian Vettel caused a red flag after crashing at Turn 10.
The session resumed 12 minutes later with Alonso improving to 1m 19.906 only to be briefly displaced by Perez, only to further improve his time to 1m 19.660.
Eventually, Norris emerged fastest after he posted 1m 19.117 with 10 minutes left of the session ahead of Leclerc, Perez, Alonso and Sainz who rounded out the top five, with everyone but Verstappen setting their fastest lap time on the soft tyre rather than mediums.
The session ended prematurely after Lance Stroll crashed at Turn 11 following a lock-up in a disastrous session for Aston Martin.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 19.117 |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.132 |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.148 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.158 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.302 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.576 |
| 7 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.692 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.779 |
| 9 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.891 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.954 |
| 11 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.979 |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 1.016 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.088 |
| 14 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.575 |
| 15 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 1.719 |
| 16 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 1.841 |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 1.908 |
| 18 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 1.933 |
| 19 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 2.519 |
| 20 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | No Time Set |
Qualifying
Q1
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was first out on track and set the first benchmark lap time of 1m 21.243 which was swiftly bettered as Leclerc went top with 1m 19.391 ahead of Norris.
Sainz went fastest in the sixth minute with 1m 19.179 whilst several drivers struggled to put a lap time together, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton the last pair excluding both Aston Martin cars to set a lap time.
Once Russell and Hamilton set their first timed laps, Zhou and Yuki Tsunoda joined Nicholas Latifi in the elimination zone but both drivers soon escaped, with Albon and Magnussen soon afterwards joining Latifi plus both Aston Martin drivers in the bottom five.
The red flag was waved two minutes and one second left on the clock after the Canadian compatriots of Stroll and Latifi collided in trying to avoid impeding Zhou, with Latifi heavily clipping Stroll’s front right tyre as he went down the inside of the Aston Martin at higher speeds.
Stewards later adjudged Stroll as responsible for the incident and handed him a three-place grid penalty.
Stewards resumed Q1 15 minutes later with several drivers led by Ricciardo engaged in a frantic dash to post one final flying lap, with Vettel finally getting out for a last-gasp flier after frantic works to repair his car during the gap between FP3 and end of Q1.
Once the checkered flag was waved, none of the five slowest drivers avoided elimination as Albon qualified 16th ahead of Magnussen, whilst Vettel managed to deliver the 18th fastest lap to outqualify Latifi and Stroll.
Post-session, Albon grinded to a halt trackside with mechanical issues which caused Q2 to be slightly delayed, whilst the Williams driver subsequently post-session was disqualified for a breach of fuel regulations.
Up front, Verstappen finished top with 1m 18.580 ahead of Red Bull teammate, Perez as Ferrari’s Leclerc and Sainz were third and fourth quickest.
Q2
Verstappen was first out on track and immediately set the initial pace on 1m 18.611 as a mixture of drivers opted for fresh soft tyres unlike others, who opted for used softs in their opening runs.
Not everybody completed their runs at the same time but once all 15 drivers had set at least one lap, the elimination zone compromised of; Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou, Mick Schumacher and Tsunoda.
At the checkered flag, only Ocon escaped elimination at Pierre Gasly’s expense to knock his French compatriot out of Qualifying, which meant that Gasly was 11th quickest ahead of Bottas who was eliminated in Q2 for the first time since 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Tsunoda qualified 13th ahead of Zhou and Schumacher whilst Perez was quickest in Q2 with 1m 18.340 ahead of Sainz and Leclerc.
Q3
Verstappen was again first out on track and set the initial pole benchmark lap of 1m 18.399 which was quickly bettered by Perez, who went just 0.001s quicker just mere moments later.
Leclerc meanwhile had backed out of his first flier but managed to find time on his second flier to go on provisional pole with 1m 18.239, just before the red flag was waved with 6m 58s left after Alonso who was on a strong flier crashed at Turn 11 after suffering a sudden loss of hydraulics.
The session resumed 13 minutes later with Leclerc sat on provisional pole ahead of Perez, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Ocon, Norris, Hamilton, Sainz and Russell.
Mercedes opted for a two warm-up laps strategy with Hamilton straight back out on track ahead of Russell whilst others waited back, prior to joining the two Silver Arrows on track as they opted for a single warm-up lap.
That strategy paid off as Russell improved to fourth whilst Hamilton cleared Ocon and Norris to improve to sixth.
Up front, Leclerc snatched a second pole position of the season as he improved to 1m 17.868 which was 0.286s faster than Verstappen who joins him on the front row.
Perez qualified third alongside Norris who improved on his final lap as Mercedes share the third row as Hamilton heads Russell in fifth and sixth respectively, whilst Ricciardo, Ocon, Sainz and Alonso rounded out the top ten.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m 17.868 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.286 |
| 3 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.372 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.835 |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.957 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 1.065 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 1.164 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.193 |
| 9 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 1.540 |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | No Time Set |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1m 19.226 |
| 12 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | + 0.184 |
| 13 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 0.198 |
| 14 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | + 0.929 |
| 15 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.239 |
| 16 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1m 20.135 |
| 17 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.119 |
| 18 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.014 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 1.237 |
| 20 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | No Time Set |
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