Piastri agonisingly close to claiming Pole at Albert Park

Lando Norris waited until the final seconds of the third and final Qualifying session to set his only timed lap, to nudge his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri off what would have been his maiden Grand Prix pole position.

In three very close Qualifying sprints, the McLaren duo swapped fastest times through the first two sessions, and then swapped pole position, with a gap of more than 0.35s to the best of the rest.

To the surprise of many, that was Max Verstappen. The World Champion had a tricky Friday, but the team worked overnight to make major changes to his car, and it showed when he took third ahead of the best of the Mercedes-AMGs, George Russell.

Fifth fastest was a real shock. Having missed out on promotion to the main Red Bull team in the off-season, Yuki Tsunoda swept confidently through all three sessions to challenge the more fancied runners, giving the Racing Bulls a solid third row start for Sunday’s race.

Likewise, Alex Albon was in fine form in the surprisingly rapid Williams, taking sixth place, with new teammate Carlos Sainz not far behind in 10th.

Charles Leclerc was the better of the Ferrari drivers, taking seventh in front of his new teammate Lewis Hamilton. Pierre Gasly was an impressive ninth fastest in his Alpine.

After the earlier Practice session, the top three drivers were separated by under 0.1s and that level of competition carried through to Qualifying. Piastri topped the opening qualifying session by less than a tenth of a second, only to see Norris return the favour in Q2.

One of the drivers eliminated in Q2 was Jack Doohan, who bested his vastly experienced Alpine teammate, Gasly by 0.013s in Q1 before running wide on one lap (and having his lap deleted) on his first run in Q2. He looked to be on his way into Q3 but found a spun Hamilton in the third sector and had to abandon his fast lap. The Queenslander will start Sunday’s race from 14th on the grid.

The other drivers to miss the top 10 were Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll (Aston Martins) and rookie Gabriele Bortoleto, who made one of the saves of the weekend when his Sauber snapped wide around the Bob Jane Stadium.

The first Q1 session saw five drivers eliminated and the headliners were Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson. The Italian teen had a floor mount break on his Mercedes-AMG and was bumped out in the final seconds of the session by Bortoleto, while Lawson struggled to find any speed in his Red Bull.

Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) and both Haases were also eliminated, Ollie Bearman’s catastrophic weekend continuing when he failed to complete a single lap before he stopped with a gearbox problem.

Sunday’s race may be on a wet Albert Park track, but the 58-lap journey is due to start at 3:00 p.m.