Lando Norris assured his tenth position of his career when he beat his teammate and hero of the hometown, Oscar Piastri, on Saturday, March 15 during the Australian Grand Prix qualification session. Norris and Piastri sealed 1-2 for McLaren, who has presented a score for the rest of the teams.
The world champion Defensor Max Verstappen will begin the race from the second row, along with George Russell in 4th. Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon produced impressive performances in recent seconds of the third quarter to add Ferrari’s misery while Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had problems for the pace on Saturday.
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Norris presented the score from the beginning in the first quarter, since it was faster about half a second and pushed Charles Leclerc to second place. Fernando Alonso also had a strong start to qualify, since it was among the top 5 from the beginning. Max Verstappen arrived in a time back was only 0.015 seconds from Norris from the beginning.
Leclerc’s second career saw him approach Top 2 while the battle was heating. Lewis Hamilton did not have the best beginnings, but he was able to gather a good career to get to Q2.
For Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson, it was not a great debut for their new teams, since both men failed to get out of Q1, while Gabriel Bortetto did it at the last moment.
Q2 began with Verstappen establishing the early rhythm, although in a return that saw him make a mistake. McLaren capitalized with faster piastri and Norris took second place.
Ferrari continued to fight to maintain the rhythm of the first row and slowly looked over his shoulder towards the last minutes of Q2. Hamilton had a turn during his flying return, but somehow survived at the end when we entered the Q3 with Alonso as the biggest victim of the session.
Charles Leclerc began brilliantly and beat the two McLarens to reach the top, but Russell was rapidly hit. Norris’s return had to be eliminated while extending a bit of the racing line. The final minutes saw Norris and Piasstri fight against the British driver surpassing his teammate for the pole for 0.084.
Verstappen’s best efforts could only beat him a third place. Ferrari were surpassed by Tsunoda and Albon at the end, since Leclerc and Hamilton were pushed towards 7 and 8.
“It’s the perfect way to start the year,” Norris said.
“Hopefully and let’s see tomorrow, I know it will be a complicated race.
“I am sure that the car is in a great position.”
The rain is expected on Sunday and could play an important role in the result of the race.
