George Russell took an impressive pole position at the Australian Grand Prix as Mercedes dominated the first qualifying session of Formula 1’s new era.
The Briton finished 0.363 seconds ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli and 0.785 seconds ahead of third-placed Red Bull’s Isaac Hajar.
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Max Verstappen’s crash on the first lap cast some doubt on the extent of Mercedes’ dominance, but it was an impressive start to the new era of regulation for the former champion.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris separating him from teammate Lewis Hamilton.
18-year-old Briton Arvid Lindblad had made an impressive start to his F1 career but his final laps were not up to the standard he had set until the weekend, when he finished ninth behind Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson.
“We were very competitive all weekend and I was trying not to get too excited after yesterday because we didn’t know if other teams had more money, but I knew we were fast and I just had to focus on my job,” Lindblad said.
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“It’s really impressive to have two cars in Q3. I’m very happy and can’t wait for tomorrow.”
Aston Martin, which was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons over the weekend following a string of unreliability, finally salvaged some respect with Fernando Alonso qualifying 17th.
But the team still has a mountain to climb before reaching the target they aspire to, particularly when it comes to partner Honda’s power units.
Russell is bossy, Antonelli’s day is full of events
George Russell was the only driver besides Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri to win a Grand Prix last year [Reuters]
Russell looked the favorite to take pole all weekend, and he was imperious throughout the race.
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He said: “A lot of the simple things that used to happen, like race starts and pit stops, are more challenging with these new cars. I said: ‘Let’s have a clean session because who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow.’ But we’re in the best position.”
Antonelli had an incident-filled day, starting with a serious crash in final practice, and his team had to race against the clock to get his car ready for qualifying.
The team also made the mistake of sending him into his final practice session with two cooling fans still in his sidepods.
They fell at the first corner, one of them being hit by Norris, and the track was covered in debris, causing the race to be stopped.
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But after a shaky driving performance for much of the race, Antonelli composed himself in the final race and put the car where it should be at the front.
Hajar strengthens and improves for Aston Martin
Frenchman Hajjar said he was surprised by finishing third and originally thought Ferrari would be ahead of him, but in his debut for Red Bull Racing, he did what many of his predecessors could not do and performed well when Verstappen was in trouble.
The four-time champion was shocked when his rear axle locked up on the first lap of the race and he spun out and crashed in Turn One.
After climbing out of the car, his hands were shaking as he gripped the steering wheel at the time of the impact, but he said there was no damage.
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“I don’t know (what happened),” he said. “I had just arrived at Turn One and the rear axle suddenly locked completely as I pressed the pedal, so it was a very strange thing that I had never experienced in F1 before. So just needed to understand what went wrong.”
He will start 20th on the grid, just ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, both of whom were ruled out of the race due to reliability issues in final practice.
Behind the Bulls, the new Audi team performed strongly, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg in 10th and 11th respectively, and the Haas of Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon in 12th and 13th respectively.
Bortoletto missed an opportunity to start higher when his car broke down on the way back to the pits after the second elimination race.
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Alonso took the opportunity to emphasize how much of a difference finally completing a few successful laps made for a team that was five seconds behind on Friday, having reduced his pace to 2.5 seconds in qualifying.
“Over the winter it felt like there was more to do, especially on the chassis side,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“We felt more or less OK in the corners and we felt we could easily finish in the top ten, but we couldn’t put the laps together over the winter.
“Here, with the second and third practice being more normal, we found two seconds easily just from running.
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“It’s a question of continuing to run laps and keeping it together. As we all know, the main problem is the PU (power unit). Our power and reliability are down. We didn’t do many laps over the winter and now we’re short of battery stock and we can’t do many laps or we’re missing parts. We need to fix the power unit and Aston Martin is trying to help Honda as much as possible.”
Top 10
1. George Russell (Mercedes) – 1:18.518
2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.293
3. Isaac Hajar (Red Bull) +0.785
4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.809
5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.862
6. Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.957
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7. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.960
8. Liam Lawson (Bulls) +1.476
9. Arvid Lindblad (Bulls) +2.729
10. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) No time set
