Vice world champion Lando Norris won the qualifying in Melbourne at the Grand Prix of Australia ahead of Oscar Piatri and world champion Max Verstappen.
“It was a clean round, I had no mistakes and it was enough,” said the McLaren pilot, who tackles the first race of the season on Sunday (5:00 a.m. CET): “A perfect way of opening the year.”
Norris had been under pressure, his first round in Q3 was canceled because he had partly left the route. However, his last attempt was made: he snatched his teammate Oscar Piatri the first place to start, the Australian would have loved to get the pole position in his home race.
“It’s a shame, it wasn’t quite enough,” said Piatri, for whom it would have been the first pole: “But great to have the team in the front row.” He was “not disappointed because I have the feeling that I have had a good weekend so far”.
Verstappen to third place – Ferrari left behind
The first pursuer of the strong McLaren duo was surprisingly world champion Max Verstappen in the Red Bull – and not Ferrari. The Scuderia, strongly assessed after the first impressions, disappointed with places seven for Charles Leclerc (Monaco) and eight for record world champion Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain).
“I would not have thought that we would have such a deficit. But there is still a lot coming,” said Hamilton: “I had fun, it’s all for the first time in Ferrari.” Team boss Fred Vasseur was critical: “That was the worst performance of the entire weekend. The pace was much better on Friday, we had problems in the third sector all the time.”
Rain for the race in Melbourne predicted
The cards for the race could be re -mixed if it actually rains as predicted. Then “something crazy” could happen, Verstappen, who appeared greatly improved compared to the previous day: “To be in third place – I take that first.” Hamilton saw it similarly. “It gets very different with the rain,” he said.
Norris warned of too much expectations, in the previous year he had given several chances of better results, that should not be repeated. “It was just qualifying,” he emphasized: “We all know how quickly Max and Red Bull are in the rain.” It is “very narrow” that mistakes could happen quickly on this route.
What McLaren speaks: Verstappen cannot receive support from his team -mate Liam Lawson. The New Zealand became very weak 18th, he already failed in the first section of the qualifying.
Hülkenberg with starting problems in the clean
Nico Hülkenberg also caught it there – because the Emmericher sits in the weak clean car, this was expected. “With the feeling in the curves and on the brakes” it didn’t fit, said Hülkenberg, for which it was enough to start, at the Sky microphone. “I don’t feel quite at home in the car. This is normal and logical when you change the team and have a new car. At the end of the day we just got a little bit.”