Schumacher celebrates small success
Leclerc secures pole on Vettel’s turbulent day
04/09/2022, 09:45 am
The leader is also the fastest in qualifying in Melbourne: Charles Leclerc secures pole for the race, Australia is ahead of world champion Max Verstappen. For Sebastian Vettel, a chaotic day including an accident ends on a happy note. Mick Schumacher can be satisfied.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc will start from pole position when Formula 1 returns to Melbourne. The championship leader from Monaco won qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday in 1:17.868 minutes. On Sunday (7 a.m. CEST/Sky and in the ntv.de live ticker) he will start the third race of the season ahead of world champion Max Verstappen (+0.286 seconds) and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. For Leclerc it is the eleventh pole of his career and the second of the season.
“It felt good,” said Leclerc. “Especially because I’ve always had problems here in the past. Everything went well in Q3, I’m very happy. The car is easy to drive. Anything is possible tomorrow. We need a good start.” His opponent Verstappen, on the other hand, was not entirely satisfied. “I didn’t feel so comfortable in the car the whole weekend. There wasn’t a lap where I had full self-confidence. It didn’t feel good to go to the limit,” said the Dutchman and stated: “The second Space is good, but as a team we want more.”
Record world champion Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes did not get past fifth place again. “We don’t understand the car,” said team boss Toto Wolff again. “At the end of the year we probably won’t be able to compete for the world title because we’re running out of time,” he said, prematurely rejecting all ambitions.
The second Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz did not qualify well and only finished ninth. He was unlucky when the race was stopped and the red flag was waved just before he could have crossed the finish line with a good time. This didn’t count. “Everything that could go wrong, went wrong for me,” he stated after further problems with the car while still in the garage. “I’ll be mad until I go to sleep.” Qualifying was turbulent due to several crashes and was repeatedly interrupted with red flags.
Vettel benefits from the crash of his teammate
For Sebastian Vettel, the day in Australia was particularly chaotic. In the 3rd free practice he had crashed into the gang through no fault of his own. His Aston Martin was massively damaged, and for a long time everything looked as if he wouldn’t be able to go out on the track in qualifying. But then his teammate Lance Stroll and Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed – Vettel’s team successfully used the extra time after the red flag to build up. “It was kind of a miracle that we got out at all. Everyone in the garage worked great together, an example of teamwork. A big thank you,” said Vettel on Sky.
Nevertheless, after one lap it was over for him again, the 34-year-old did not get past 18th place, but then moved up to 17th place due to a penalty for Williams driver Alex Albon. “I’ve tried everything, but I’ve hardly had any laps so far, also through my own fault. Not an easy weekend for us so far. I’m still struggling, the rhythm isn’t there yet. Especially when you don’t know where the limit is , then it’s hard to find the limit in the blue,” he said. Nevertheless, he emphasized: “The mood is great, it was a great example of teamwork. You probably work even harder at the end of the field, but unfortunately you’re not rewarded. It’s tough, we’re not where we want to be, but we are work and fight.”
“Probably a lot of action tomorrow”
Things went better for his buddy Mick Schumacher. He achieved his goal of getting into Q2. He also finished 15th, better than his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen, who finished 17th. “The primary goal wasn’t to beat him, but to get into Q2. Mainly because we had big problems on Friday. This morning we got the balance into the window, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough for Q3,” said Schumacher at Sky. “The goal is to definitely score points and drive a clean race. There will definitely be a lot of action tomorrow. It was already haywire in qualifying, so we’ll definitely be in a position to score points .”
Sunday’s race will be Australia’s first since 2019. In the past two years, the traditional GP had been canceled due to the corona pandemic.