2022 Australian Grand Prix - Saturday

THE ROAD TO POLE

• Ferrari driver (and championship leader) Charles Leclerc took his second pole of the season, having made the most of the P Zero Red soft tyre, which was used from start to finish of qualifying by the whole field. Leclerc was the only driver to get below the 1m18s benchmark on the redesigned Albert Park track this year, which is now faster and more challenging.
• The qualifying session – which was interrupted by two red flags – got underway in ambient temperatures of 26 degrees centigrade and track temperatures of 31 degrees. By the end of qualifying an hour and a half later, track temperature had dropped by four degrees. McLaren’s Lando Norris went fastest in the FP3 session earlier this afternoon, ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso: again on the soft tyre. The P Zero White hard and P Zero Yellow medium were also run in FP3.
• The Pirelli Pole Position Award was given out by two-time MotoGP champion Casey Stoner, from Queensland in Australia. Stoner, who retired from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season, has also raced on four wheels in V8 Supercars. Leclerc claimed the 11^th pole position of his career and his second of the 2022 season, lining up alongside Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen on the front row.