Australian GP Polesitter Charles Leclerc Keeps His Guard Up Against Charging Red Bull F1 Pair

The weekend is underway in Melbourne as the Australian GP returns to the calendar. The race missed out on the last 2 years due to the pandemic. However, Albert Park is back and back with a bang. The weekend so far has been an exciting affair, with the fans all set up for the race.

With the 3 practice sessions and Qualifying all wrapped up only the race on Sunday is pending.

Charles Leclerc in Australia

The Monegasque driver has had a magnificent start to the season with Ferrari. He currently tops the driver’s standings and won the season opener in Bahrain and just lost out for top honors, in Jeddah, against Max Verstappen.

This weekend in Melbourne has been more of the same dominant performance with him picking up the pole once again. However, Leclerc spoke on their previous struggles at Albert Park, “We’ve always had problems on this track in the past,….in Q3 I took a lot of risks and managed to pull everything together.”

He further went on to add, “Of course, I’m very happy with pole position. But the Red Bulls looked very good..It will definitely be a close race”

Read More: Leclerc Leads Australian GP Grid With Creeping Red Bull Duo as Hometown Hero Ricciardo Gets Hopeful Start

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez rounded out the top 3 in Qualifying to add to Leclerc’s woes.

Qualifying Roundup at Australian GP

Qualifying on the streets of Melbourne served up the goods on Saturday. The session ended with Charles Leclerc on pole and Max Verstappen next to him on the front row. However, Albert park saw some drama, as well as Q1, was red-flagged due to a crash between Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll.

The session also saw a strong performance from McLaren who have made somewhat of a revival. Lando Norris secured a P4 and Ricciardo P7. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes also enjoyed some good fortune with the Britton qualifying P5 and his teammate George Russell in P6.

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Qualifying also saw Valtteri Bottas‘s run of consecutive Q3 appearances, dating back to 2017, end. Another driver whose weekend was marred by misfortune was Sebastian Vettel, His return to the track was affected by technical issues, and was out in Q1 alongside teammate Lance Stroll. Check out how the grid is set up for tomorrow’s Australian GP.