McLaren drivers surprised as Ferrari threat vanishes in qualifying · RaceFans

McLaren’s drivers said they expected a stronger threat from Ferrari after locking out the front row of the grid in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc set the quickest lap in practice at the Albert Park circuit yesterday. However he only managed seventh on the grid, one place ahead of team mate Lewis Hamilton. Drivers from five different teams out-qualified the Ferrari pair.

Lando Norris, who took pole position for the season-opener, admitted he “expected more” from their rivals. “They’ve been just as quick as us all weekend,” he said. “We definitely came into qualifying expecting a fight with Ferrari.”

Norris ended qualifying six tenths of a second ahead of Leclerc. His closest rival from outside McLaren was Max Verstappen, who was over three-tenths of a second off pole position.

“Max was not far behind [and] he was a bit surprised to be up here,” said Norris. “I think we expected more from Ferrari.

“People are quick to judge: ‘Oh he’s there on the timesheets, they’re slower, the car isn’t good’. But it’s difficult out there to put a lap together.

The field is now so close that small amounts of lap time can make a significant difference, said Norris. “When you see how close one tenth can be, it can easily be three or four positions.

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“A tenth is easily within most drivers every lap, especially on a track like this. It’s about commitment, pushing that little more on the final lap, getting off the brakes, committing to corners, pushing track limits. There’s a tenth in most people. Sometimes two-tenths in taking those risks.”

Norris lost his first lap time in Q3 due to a track limits infringement. “I felt I still took a good amount of risks in the final lap to get pole,” he said. “But I did expect Ferrari to be quicker.”

“Whether that’s because they didn’t put good laps in or struggled more with the car, I don’t know,” he added. “We all expected Ferrari to be quicker because they have been just as quick as us all weekend. So it’s more that they just didn’t perform in qualifying for whatever reason.”

Oscar Piastri, who will join Norris on the front row, agreed. “Going into qualifying, we expected Ferrari to be our biggest challenge,” he said.

“In FP3, any one of the top four teams looked like they could challenge. I don’t know, maybe we just took more sandbags out than everyone else! I was pleasantly surprised by the pace we had in qualifying. Maybe [I was] surprised by some other teams, namely Ferrari.”

However he expects the competitive order will change over the coming races. “It’s only one session. Obviously, the headline now is probably going to be ‘McLaren is by far the quickest,’ but I think it will change a lot over the next few races.

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“If we don’t know who will be quickest, I don’t know how anyone else can. It’s going to be a good fight. I expect Ferrari to be fast and competitive through the year.”

Although Ferrari appeared to have lost some of their pace in final practice, team principal Frederic Vasseur said the timing of their final runs made matters worse for them. Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton saw their best times beaten by Alexander Albon and Yuki Tsunoda at the end of Q3, leaving them on the fourth row of the grid.

“We didn’t look too bad in Q1 and Q2, as we were one to two tenths off the McLarens,” he said. “However, in Q3, we didn’t do a good job because we didn’t manage to run at the same pace as our opponents and as a result, we find ourselves in positions that do not reflect our true potential.”