The Australian Grand Prix qualifying session was a tense, chaotic affair, marked by red flags, razor-thin margins, and the first taste of Formula 1’s new technical era. At the end of it, Charles Leclerc secured P4 on the second row, while Lewis Hamilton will start from P7 on the fourth row of the grid.
Both Ferrari drivers navigated Q1 and Q2 with relative ease, running Medium tires to preserve two sets of Softs for the final showdown. In Q3, Leclerc’s first run produced a 1’20”244, while Hamilton clocked 1’20”423. On their second attempts with fresh Softs, Leclerc improved to 1’19”327, missing out on third place by just 24 thousandths of a second. Hamilton’s 1’19”478 left him three thousandths shy of Lando Norris in sixth.
There were challenges along the way. An energy deployment issue in Q2 briefly disrupted the rhythm, but the team quickly fixed it back in the garage. It was a reminder that this is the first race weekend under new regulations—a championship that will be defined as much by development as by raw pace.
The Drivers Speak
Charles Leclerc (#16):
“Today’s result is not where we wanted or expected to be, mainly because we lost execution at an important stage of qualifying. However, the car felt solid and there is clearly more potential than the final position suggests.
Now it’s about understanding the issues, staying composed, and making the most of tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton (#44):
“It was a tough and rather chaotic qualifying session, but that was the same for everyone. You can do as much testing as you like, but it is never the same as tackling a real qualifying session with all the other cars around you. It was a new challenge, we did not manage to put everything together, as we had a few issues during the session. What is clear is that today the gap to Mercedes is significant and we will have to make progress to get closer to them.
So far this weekend our pace has been decent, but there is still a lot for all the teams to discover, and we have probably not yet seen everyone’s true potential. The most important thing is to learn from what we did not do well today and focus on tomorrow’s race.”
The Team’s Outlook
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal:
“There were some challenges today, as expected for the first qualifying in these new cars. We had an issue with energy deployment in Q2, which was fixed as soon as we came back to the garage. We will take what we learned today forward to the next qualifying. It’s difficult to make any predictions for now. It’s the first race weekend of a new regulatory cycle, and a championship that will be won by development. That race is just starting. We are very focused on that and will extract everything we have from our current package. It will be interesting to see how all the teams will manage the race tomorrow.”
Tomorrow’s Grand Prix covers 58 laps (306.124 km), starting at 15:00 local time (5:00 CET). With new regulations, unknowns abound, and opportunities are wide open. Ferrari may not have locked out the front rows, but both Leclerc and Hamilton are within striking distance, ready to fight for points—and perhaps something more—at the season opener in Melbourne.