Formula 1
FERNANDO CRASHES ALBON DISQUALIFIED LECLERC ON POLE MAX P2 PEREZ P3 AND LCH GETTING TO GRIPS WITH LUCKY W13!
MELBOURNE, April 9 (Reuters) – Charles Leclerc took pole position for Ferrari in crash-laden qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday, pipping Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen on the upgraded Albert Park circuit.
Leclerc saved his best for last, his flying lap of one minute 17.868 seconds nearly three-tenths of a second quicker than Verstappen, leaving Max in a funk over the performance of his RB18 car.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 09: Second placed qualifier Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Third placed qualifier Sergio Perez of Mexico and Oracle Red Bull Racing talk in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit on April 09, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool .
Max finished ahead of third-quickest team mate Sergio Perez, with McLaren’s Lando Norris to start fourth on the grid.
Leclerc’s 11th career pole and second of the season set up another Sunday showdown with Verstappen, the pair’s rivalry having dominated the early races.
Leclerc said he managed to “put everything together” in the third and final phase of qualifying.
“The car is nice to drive … We were again quite surprised by our pace in qualifying,” said the Monegasque.
“We are again very close with Red Bull. So it’s going to be close racing tomorrow.”
The Ferrari driver was summoned by the stewards for “driving unnecessarily slowly” on an in-lap but no action was taken. Leclerc and the team explained that the lap was meant to be a cool-down lap and not an in-lap before they changed their mind.
Verstappen said he was having a “terrible” weekend, struggling with balance.
“I didn’t really feel good in the car the whole weekend so far…. Of course second is still a good result,” he added.
“As a team we want more.”
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – APRIL 09: A Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing fan waits for the drivers to arrive prior to final practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Australia at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit on April 09, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool.
MAX VERSTAPPEN: “The weekend so far has been a bit of a struggle, there is a gap between Charles and I, but second of course is not bad and I think there is a lot more potential in the car than we are showing at the moment. I didn’t really feel 100% in the car today, so we tried to change a few things in the set up, but it didn’t quite make the improvements we hoped for and we’ll do the best we can tomorrow. I think we have a good race car and in race conditions everything stabilises a bit, so it is more consistent. Let’s hope we can have a good race tomorrow.”