F1 Australian GP: George Russell takes pole by 0.3s as Max Verstappen crashes out

A dominant Russell was untouchable in Melbourne’s qualifying session, which ended early for Verstappen

George Russell took a dominant pole position at Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix, with nobody competitive enough to challenge Mercedes in Melbourne.

Russell topped all three segments and led team-mate Kimi Antonelli by three tenths in Q3, with third-placed Isack Hadjar eight tenths slower; Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri made up the top five.

Max Verstappen’s qualifying session ended prematurely when he crashed out on his very first flying lap.

Q1 was red-flagged when Verstappen’s accident occurred, with less than eight minutes remaining. The four-time world champion spun at high speed when braking for Turn 1, with his rear wheels presumably locking.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing crash

Photo by: Paul Crock / AFP via Getty Images

At that moment, Russell led the classification by nearly four tenths in 1m19.840s; his Mercedes team-mate Antonelli was in the drop zone after his FP3 crash, joined by Verstappen, Carlos Sainz – who had a technical issue in FP3 – and Lance Stroll, amid Aston Martin’s dire engine hardship. None of the four had a lap time on the board; they were led by the Cadillacs, which were also at risk in 17th and 18th, and were one second slower than Aston’s Fernando Alonso in 16th.

As Russell improved to a 1m19.507s, Antonelli easily made it to Q2, leaving Franco Colapinto on the brink of elimination. However, a last-ditch improvement by the Argentine ended Alonso’s – and Aston Martin’s – session by a substantial margin.

Russell set the pace in Q2 again with the first 1m18s lap of the weekend, namely a 1m18.934s, leading Piastri by 0.648s; with five minutes remaining, Pierre Gasly, Oliver Bearman, Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Colapinto and Lewis Hamilton were in the drop zone; the seven-time world champion had gone fastest in the first sector but backed out of his lap.

Russell went on to set the only other 1m18s lap in that segment, though he failed to improve on his benchmark by half a tenth; he still led everyone else by four tenths. Further back, Hamilton jumped to seventh, while Esteban Ocon’s lack of progress saw him demoted to 13th. Gasly and Albon also failed to improve, with the Thai driver running wide in Turn 1.

Gabriel Bortoleto narrowly made it through for Audi, but he stopped with a technical issue at pit entry, meaning only nine cars took part in Q3 – the Mercedes, Ferraris, McLarens, Racing Bulls, and Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull.

The top-10 shootout was red-flagged early on after a cooling fan was left on Antonelli’s car. Part of it flew away in the Turn 1 braking zone, while another section of the fan was dislodged on the straight towards Turn 3; Lando Norris’ left-hand wheel ran over the latter, and it disintegrated. Antonelli is under investigation over his car being released in an unsafe condition.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: William West / AFP via Getty Images

Russell’s first Q3 attempt was slower than both his Q2 markers, a 1m19.084s, but he still was half a second faster than Norris and Hadjar, with Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton more than a second off. Antonelli ran wide into the Turn 3 gravel trap and backed out.

The Italian sophomore, however, set a 1m18.811s on his last lap – but Russell reigned supreme and went three tenths faster in 1m18.518s.

Hadjar took third for Red Bull in 1m19.903s but was nearly eight tenths away; he narrowly outpaced Leclerc and Piastri, with Norris and Hamilton just under a second off pole position.

Racing Bulls duo Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad battled for eighth position, with the Kiwi coming out on top as the rookie lost a second in sector two.

Australian GP - Qualifying results

GRID

All Stats

Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Time	km/h
1	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'18.518	241.992
2	A. Kimi Antonelli Mercedes	12	Mercedes	Mercedes	+0.293 1'18.811	241.093
3	I. Hadjar Red Bull Racing	6	Red Bull	Red Bull	+0.785 1'19.303	239.597
4	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.809 1'19.327	239.525
5	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	+0.862 1'19.380	239.365
6	L. Norris McLaren	1	McLaren	Mercedes	+0.957 1'19.475	239.078
7	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	Ferrari	Ferrari	+0.960 1'19.478	239.069
8	L. Lawson Racing Bulls	30	RB	Red Bull	+1.476 1'19.994	237.527
9	A. Lindblad Racing Bulls	41	RB	Red Bull	+2.729 1'21.247	233.864
10	G. Bortoleto Audi	5	Audi	Audi
11	N. Hulkenberg Audi	27	Audi	Audi	+1.785 1'20.303	236.613
12	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87	Haas	Ferrari	+1.793 1'20.311	236.590
13	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31	Haas	Ferrari	+1.973 1'20.491	236.061
14	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Mercedes	+1.983 1'20.501	236.031
15	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	+2.423 1'20.941	234.748
16	F. Colapinto Alpine	43	Alpine	Mercedes	+2.752 1'21.270	233.798
17	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Honda	+3.451 1'21.969	231.804
18	S. Perez Cadillac-Ferrari	11	Cadillac	Ferrari	+4.087 1'22.605	230.019
19	V. Bottas Cadillac-Ferrari	77	Cadillac	Ferrari	+4.726 1'23.244	228.254
20	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	3	Red Bull	Red Bull
21	C. Sainz Williams	55	Williams	Mercedes
22	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Honda
View full results