Event: Australian Grand Prix
Track: Albert Park Circuit
Weather: 23.3-22.8°C sunny & dry
Tarmac: 39.6-34.4°C dry
Humidity: 69.7-70%
Wind: 1.2-1.7 m/s
Air pressure: 1.016.8 bar
Lewis Hamilton scored pole position during the Australian GP qualifying session. The Mercedes driver broke his own pole record of last year and will start from P1 tomorrow for the 84th time in his Formula 1 career. It's his 3rd pole in a row and the 8th time Hamilton starts from pole in Australia.
Q1 session
Lando Norris was the first to go out in Q clocked a 1:24.654. A few minutes later both Mercedes drivers clocked a 1:22.6. it was Valterri Bottas who was faster than Lewis Hamilton on the fastest soft tyres. Sebastian Vettel only was 0,2 sec slower in the Ferrari than Bottas on the slower Medium tyres. Sergio Pérez showed was best of the rest in the first stint. At the end of the session the top 15 drove lap times with less then 1 second. Pierre Gasly was surprisingly one of the drivers who didn't make it to Q2. Robert Kubica had a puncture in the last run and slowed donw a couple of drivers.
Q2 session
Ferrari and Mercedes got on their way right away to put a time on the board and topped the chart with Valtteri Bottas on P1. Max Verstappen was the last to set a lap time on the Melbourne track that quickly became faster to drive the second fastest lap time in the Honda powered Red Bull. Kimi Raikkonen was best of the rest in the Alfa Romeo. After the 2nd stint Hamilton beat his teammate again and Verstappen also drove quicker.
Surprises were Lando Norris on P9 in the McLaren and Sergio Pérez in the Racing Point on P10. Both Haas drivers showed great pace and made it to Q3. The Aussies will be disappointed as Daniel Ricciardo didn't make it to Q3. His teammate Nico Hulkenberg was 0.08 quicker, but also didn't make it.
Q3 session
Q3 always has 2 stints. In the first stint it was Bottas in the Mercedes W10 who topped the time sheet with an amazing time of 1:20.598. Hamilton was 2nd with a gap of 0.457 sec. Kimi Raikkonen who also made it to Q3 in the Alfa Romeo C39 didn't record a time in the first stint.
The second stint was building up a lot of excitement. Verstappen drove out of the pits as last in the Red Bull. Hamilton nailed the lap and with a 1:20.486 was one-tenth faster than his team mate. Haas did a great job again, just like last year by starting 6th and 7th.
The pole time of Hamilton last year was 1:21.164 min. The lap time of today was 0.678 sec faster.
Qualifying Results 2019 Australian GP
Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:22.043 | 1:21.014 | 1:20.486 | 18 |
2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:22.367 | 1:21.193 | 1:20.598 | 19 |
3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:22.885 | 1:21.912 | 1:21.190 | 16 |
4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:22.876 | 1:21.678 | 1:21.320 | 17 |
5 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:22.017 | 1:21.739 | 1:21.442 | 17 |
6 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:22.959 | 1:21.870 | 1:21.826 | 17 |
7 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:22.519 | 1:22.221 | 1:22.099 | 18 |
8 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:22.702 | 1:22.423 | 1:22.304 | 21 |
9 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo | 1:22.966 | 1:22.349 | 1:22.314 | 17 |
10 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Racing Point | 1:22.908 | 1:22.532 | 1:22.781 | 15 |
11 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Renault | 1:22.540 | 1:22.562 | no time | 10 |
12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:22.921 | 1:22.570 | no time | 12 |
13 | 23 | Alex Albon | Toro Rosso | 1:22.757 | 1:22.636 | no time | 14 |
14 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:22.431 | 1:22.714 | no time | 14 |
15 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:22.511 | 1:22.774 | no time | 13 |
16 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 1:23.017 | no time | no time | 6 |
17 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull | 1:23.020 | no time | no time | 6 |
18 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | McLaren | 1:23.084 | no time | no time | 6 |
19 | 63 | George Russell | Williams | 1:24.360 | no time | no time | 9 |
20 | 88 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 1:26.067 | no time | no time | 8 |
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Ho hum - another Mercedes sandbagging year ahead. Hamilton "my front right brake is a problem" always gives himself a pre-quali out, but still goes fastest.
I think that's my season as a fan over.
Sour grapes
Great to see Lewis on pole, although looking at the top 10, I think we might be in for a really tight season . And what about Lando Norris, fantastic!
Same old, same old.
No further viewing interest for this season
Hans, look on the bright side:
Lewis will treat the races as mere annoyance on his way to the 6th title.
Wolff will, like always, play a hired wailing woman lamenting how they might not win.
Sour grapes
Took you three and a half months to come up with that!? Wow!
So impressed by the way some youngsters are coming through and making their mark. Great that Bottas has upped his game in first GP he could be still the dark horse of the season. I think Leclerc is the man to watch improve this season, perhaps he can finish the season in the top three
If this qualifying is uninteresting to you, may I suggest a different sport? Before being out-qualified by Hamilton, Bottas set a lap record and narrowed the gap between himself and Hamilton successively each session. But of greater notice is the performance of rookie Lando Norris, who took his McLaren up to eighth in Q3, while veteran Carlos Sainz, Jr. was able only to qualify 18th.
For me the first race of a new season is always filled with anticipation. This year is especially interesting because it looked like Ferrari had a clear lead and now, well? I was surprised to not see much comment on tyres and wonder how this will play out tomorrow and possibly influence the result
sigh.....another mercedez year...why should we watch this season..some one explain :P hamilton world champion, ferrari sulk with every one else....nothing changes this year!!!! boring!!!!
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