What the teams said – Qualifying in Australia

Mercedes

Mercedes were the pre-season favourites for a reason. Their car and PU both look impressive and in Russell, they have a supremely confident driver. And not for no reason, as he grabbed the first pole of the year with comparative ease, finishing nearly eight tenths clear of the nearest non-Mercedes car.

But while his day looked straightforward, Antonelli’s was not. The teenager was right in the mix at the front in FP3, but on his last soft tyre run he took too much kerb into Turn 2. His car spun out into the wall, with Antonelli then bouncing back across the track. Somehow, his team miraculously repaired the damage and were able to get him out midway through Q1 – which was only possible thanks to the early red flag delay after Verstappen’s crash.

He managed one flying lap in Q1, which was good enough to make it through under huge pressure but later was released with a cooling fan still attached in Q3. That caused a red flag, after it fell from his car. But despite all of that and a trip through the gravel, he nailed his last lap to secure a first row lock out.

George Russell, 1st, 1:18.518

"Everything came together well today, and the team did an amazing job. They got the car into a good place, and we know that we’ve historically been quick in cooler conditions. Everything fell our way and we were able to convert that into pole. Equally, we know that the advantage we had today is not the true gap to our competitors. The team at Brackley and Brixworth have provided us with a really strong platform to build on but, if we want to win this championship, we will need to improve the car in several areas. This is only the first Qualifying session of the first race, and everyone is still on zero points.

"We will do our best to convert P1 and P2 into a strong result tomorrow. It will be a long afternoon, and we will see what challenges get thrown our way. We had good long run pace on Friday, but we need to execute well if we want to fight for victory. Let’s see what we can do."

Kimi Antonelli, 2nd, 1:18.811

"I clearly like to make my life difficult! We were on the back foot after my crash in FP3 but today, the heroes are the mechanics and everyone in the garage. I cannot thank them enough for repairing my car in time for Qualifying. We were so tight on time that we weren’t even able to set the car up properly, but they still gave me a rapid machine that enabled us to lock out the front-row.

"We now have the chance to fight for a good result tomorrow. There are no points scored on Saturday, and it will be a long Grand Prix with these new cars. It is only the first race of the year and there are still lots of unknowns and things that can trip us up. We will need to do a good job tomorrow to turn this positive into a good points haul. I’m excited for the challenge and to get the season underway properly."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"I don’t know where to start with the congratulations today as there are many that I need to make! The team has done a brilliant job to turn around Kimi’s car after his FP3 accident and to get it ready for Qualifying. It did not seem realistic to me when the car got back to us, but they put in an incredible effort. The team across Brackley and Brixworth have also done such a strong job to get the W17 to Melbourne in such a strong position and for the race team here in Australia to help put it P1 and P2 today. Both drivers also did brilliantly; George was on a different level out there and put in a fantastic performance whilst Kimi also recovered well and kept a cool head to deliver the front-row lockout.

"Whilst we are very happy with today’s performance, it is only Qualifying and the first race of the season. The points are scored tomorrow so we need to show that we can be just as strong in the Grand Prix. We also know that our competitors will have much more to show than they did today and this will be no indication of how the rest of the season is likely to play out."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"Well done to the team for managing to get Kimi's car back together and out before the end of Q1. It took so many people to make it happen and it was great that the hard work paid off with a front-row lock-out.

"George also did a brilliant job to start the year with a pole position. He had the session under control from start to finish and made it look easy, but that's all down the fact he worked hard and left no stone unturned in his preparations. Kimi had a less smooth day; the crash in FP3 will have set him back but he will learn from that. He did a fine job under enormous pressure though to make it through the sessions and end up on the front row. Finally, well done to the team in Brackley and Brixworth; it's impressive to see how hard everyone has worked preparing for these regulations, but they can all be immensely satisfied to be starting the first race of a new era with both cars at the head of the field."

Red Bull

It was a very mixed bag at Red Bull, and not in the way many expected. Verstappen crashed out in Q1 without setting a lap time, as his car swung around under braking. He flew through the gravel and hit the barriers, but despite shaking his hand afterwards, confirmed he is okay. The accident looked more car-related than a driver error, something the Dutchman confirmed afterwards. But Hadjar flew the flag for the team from that point on, making Q3 with ease and once there, nailing his final lap to pip the Ferraris and both McLaren cars for his best-ever qualifying result.

Max Verstappen, 20th, No time set in Q1

“The crash today was very strange, I hit the brake pedal into turn one and the whole rear axle completely locked. I am all good, so that is the main thing. I went to the medical centre and had a scan on my hands and they are all fine. I need to speak to the Team and assess the data and find out what went wrong as I have never experienced this before. Well done to Isack as he did a great job in Qualifying. Tomorrow, I will be starting at the back and trying to make my way forwards. Obviously, it isn’t ideal but we can aim for P6 or P7 although I don’t yet know how easy it is to overtake cars.”

Isack Hadjar, 3rd, 1:19.303

"I'm very happy with that result. When I crossed the line on that final lap I knew it was a good one. It was the perfect start to my career with the Team. Going into Qualifying, it is not something that we expected so we can be really happy. We kept improving after every run, from the first lap in Q1 to that final one, the car and I got better each time. We managed to find the consistency that we didn't have yesterday and throughout I felt a strong car underneath me in both the chassis and power unit. We've put ourselves in a strong position for tomorrow and we'll see what we can do to hold off those behind us."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

“We all know how challenging and competitive this sport is, therefore Qualifying P3 today is a great reward for all the hard work behind the scenes done in the last four years, on the PU side of course, but also on the chassis side to tackle these new regulations.

"It was a fantastic day for Isack. Qualifying P3 is a huge moment for him. He has put an incredible amount of work in over the winter and to see that effort translate into a result like this is very special, not just for him, but for the entire Team.

"What happened to Max is obviously very unfortunate and the most important thing is that he is okay. At the moment we are still trying to fully understand what happened. The loss of grip he had to deal with looked very brutal and unusual. We will need to take a deeper dive into the data and analyse everything carefully.

"Tonight, we are all extremely proud of everyone back in Milton Keynes for giving us such a strong start to the season. I’m also very pleased to have Ford alongside us as a partner and to see two more cars qualify in the top nine running our Red Bull Ford PU. We know tomorrow will be another steep learning day, and we are all focused on taking on those learnings as quickly as we can as a Team."

Ferrari

Ferrari still looked quick in practice, and were confident enough to come out on the medium tyres in Q1. On the yellow-marked rubber, both cars were quick and they were fighting with Mercedes at the front. But once the softs went on in Q2, neither Leclerc nor Hamilton had the same sort of pace. Although they both made Q3, neither could come close to competing with Mercedes on pure pace, with Hamilton also beaten by the papaya cars as well. But as it stands, they might have the best start of anyone on the grid, so all is not lost going into race day.

Charles Leclerc, 4th, 1:19.327

"There were some challenges today, as expected for the first qualifying in these new cars. We had an issue with energy deployment in Q2, which was fixed as soon as we came back to the garage. We will take what we learned today forward to the next qualifying.

"It’s difficult to make any predictions for now. It’s the first race weekend of a new regulatory cycle, and a championship that will be won by development. That race is just starting. We are very focused on that and will extract everything we have from our current package. It will be interesting to see how all the teams will manage the race tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton, 7th, 1:19.478

"Today’s result is not where we wanted or expected to be, mainly because we lost execution at an important stage of qualifying. However, the car felt solid and there is clearly more potential than the final position suggests. Now it’s about understanding the issues, staying composed, and making the most of tomorrow."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"It was a tough and rather chaotic qualifying session, but that was the same for everyone. You can do as much testing as you like, but it is never the same as tackling a real qualifying session with all the other cars around you. It was a new challenge and we did not manage to put everything together, as we had a few issues during the session. What is clear is that today the gap to Mercedes is significant and we will have to make progress to get closer to them. So far this weekend our pace has been decent, but there is still a lot for all the teams to discover and we have probably not yet seen everyone’s true potential. The most important thing is to learn from what we did not do well today and focus on tomorrow’s race."

McLaren

McLaren looked in the mix at the front going into Qualifying, with Piastri the pick of their drivers throughout practice. That is how it started in Q1 too, with the Australian flirting with the top spots. But things started to go wrong when Norris was the unlucky car to run over a duct cooling fan shed from Antonelli’s Mercedes. That red flag stoppage gave the team time to check his car, and he was able to continue. But neither driver looked in a good rhythm in Q3 after that, and they had to settle for the third row.

Lando Norris, 6th, 1:19.475

"Overall, I think P6 is a reasonable starting position for tomorrow, given some of the issues we’ve had coming into Qualifying. I’m not happy about P6, and I do think P3 was doable, given we lost some performance after hitting debris. But, having missed a lot of time in FP1 yesterday, alongside some of the other challenges we’ve been dealing with so far this weekend, it’s not a bad starting position. We’re in the mix, which is where we wanted to be, so we’ll prepare for tomorrow and focus on doing what we can to move forward."

Oscar Piastri, 5th, 1:19.380

"A reasonable Qualifying session today. It was pretty smooth and we’re about where we thought we would be in the pack, but we were just lacking a bit of performance. I think P3 was on the cards today, but we’re still learning on every run with these new cars so there was still some lap time out there. A good base to build from and we’ll see what we can do to get on the podium tomorrow."

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

"Today’s Qualifying results in decent starting positions for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Lando and Oscar did well in extracting what they could from the MCL40, resulting in a reasonable P5 and P6 result.

"The team executed the sessions well, and we qualified in line with our expectations at this stage of the season. Both drivers also performed consistently throughout, and on Lando’s side we believe he suffered a small loss of performance from the front wing damage caused by the debris on track.

"The main takeaway from today is that we need to do some work to generate more power and extract more performance from the power unit. Mercedes’ performance today shows there’s more to find, so we will work collaboratively with HPP to become more competitive. Tonight, we will review across the board and ensure we set ourselves up as well as possible for the first race of the season."

Racing Bulls

Racing Bulls grabbed the early ‘best of the rest’ tag after getting both cars into Q3 – the only midfield team to do so. All the way through, Lindblad had had the beating of his team mate, but when it mattered, Lawson nailed his one and only lap in Q3 to finish ahead. Both had to run scrubbed tyres in the top 10 shootout which did not help their cause, so they only went for one flying lap. A small error cost Lindblad, but P9 on debut is no mean feat.

Arvid Lindblad, 9th, 1:21.247

"I think all weekend we’ve been quite competitive. I was trying to not get too excited after yesterday, because we didn’t know if things were going to change or if other teams had more in the pocket or whatnot. But I kind of knew coming into the session that we were fast, and I just needed to focus on myself and do my job and we could be competitive. The team have done a phenomenal job. It’s really impressive to have two cars in Q3, especially from where we were in Bahrain – I think it was much more than [mine] and the team’s expectations, so I’m extremely happy and just can’t wait for tomorrow."

Liam Lawson, 8th, 1:19.994

"I think honestly, where we thought we’d be this weekend was probably not here so, yeah, pretty happy with that. I think the start of Quali for me was quite rough honestly, so finally sort of pieced it together towards the end, but it was quite tricky from where I sat. It was actually hard to put a lap together – I kept locking up, making mistakes, and we had quite a quick car so it was a little bit unnecessary, to be honest, from my side, but towards the end it got more together. We saved a new set for tomorrow as well, which is positive – we didn’t run a new set in Q3 as everybody else around us was already out."

Tim Goss, Chief Technical Officer

"An excellent day for VCARB and Red Bull Ford Powertrains today in Qualifying. There were so many unknowns ahead of the start of the season with such a massive change in both car and PU regulations, and so much speculation about the relative pace of each team. It's been a long hard period of research and preparation, and a tough three weeks of pre-season testing. Two cars into Q3 and Qualifying positions of P8 and P9 prove that we have two quick drivers and an impressive car in the shape of the VCARB 03.

"We came to Melbourne with a good understanding of the sweet spot for our car's set-up, and with some additional aerodynamic upgrades, the car's pace and balance took another step forwards. From the start, the car was in the correct window, thanks to some excellent preparation work from our engineering team, and from this baseline we just needed some fine tuning through the practice sessions ahead of Qualifying.

"Proceeding from Q1 was relatively straightforward, and we still took the opportunity to run two sets of new tyres to make sure we were as best prepared as possible for Q2, which was set to be our main battleground. Both drivers delivered amazing laps in Q2 to get us through to the top ten shoot-out.

"In Q3 we ran used Soft tyres, which was just a strategic decision to improve our opportunities for Sunday's race. Liam delivered another great lap, however Arvid suffered a minor control issue which cost significant performance. The job is a long way from being complete, but we look forward to Sunday's race to deliver a good points finish."

Audi

Audi impressed in practice, so it was no surprise to see both cars up there fighting for Q3. In the end Bortoleto got the slot at the expense of his team mate by less than a tenth. But on his in-lap, the Brazilian encountered an issue and slowed, eventually grinding to a halt within the pit lane entry, but not over the white line of the pit lane itself. As such, his car was wheeled away by marshals and he could not take part in Q3. Nonetheless, 10th and 11th are impressive starting slots for Audi.

Nico Hulkenberg, 11th, 1:20.303

“It was quite a busy qualifying for us. We had a few things to manage early on, so it took a bit of time to really find a rhythm. In the end I had one clean shot at a lap in Q2 and managed to put it together well, which puts us P11 - a solid place to start from. There’s a lot going on in the cockpit with energy management, tyres and traffic, so it keeps you fully focused every lap, but we’re learning more each time we run.

“Overall, it’s a positive day for the team. The long runs yesterday felt encouraging and we’re in a good position heading into the race. With these new cars there are still plenty of unknowns, so tomorrow could be quite open and we’ll aim to make the most of any opportunities.”

Gabriel Bortoleto, 10th, No time set in Q3

“It has been a very positive qualifying for the team. Being in the top ten in our first race weekend as Audi Revolut F1 Team is something we can all be proud of, especially considering the amount of work that has gone in over the winter to bring this car together and make it competitive, and to build a new power unit from scratch.

“Of course, it is frustrating not to be able to take part in Q3 after making it through. We do not yet know exactly what caused the issue at the end of qualifying: I started to lose gears in the middle of the lap and could not make it back to the pits, so it is something we will analyse with the team. From what we have seen so far, it does not look like a major problem and hopefully we can fix it for tomorrow.

“The car has shown good potential. I don't think many people expected us to be fighting for a top-ten position so early, so it is a very encouraging start. Now the focus is on tomorrow. Starting from P10 gives us a good opportunity, and hopefully we can have a strong race and fight with the cars ahead.”

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal

“It was a tremendously encouraging qualifying session for the team, and seeing Gabi reach Q3 at the very first race for the Audi Revolut F1 Team is a special moment for everyone involved. It’s a strong reflection of the hard work that has gone into building this programme and getting us to this point.

“Unfortunately, we experienced a technical issue at the end of Gabi’s final run which prevented him from participating in Q3, and Nico also had a small problem that affected his last run in Q2.

“Overall, this is a very positive start for the team. It’s both encouraging in terms of performance, and a testament to the collective effort of so many talented people across the organisation.”

Haas

Qualifying finally revealed the midfield pecking order, with Haas just the wrong wide of the fight for the top 10 slots. They were not far off though, with Bearman under a tenth away from making Q3. Nonetheless, unlike many of their rivals, Haas seem to have reliability on their side which could count for a lot come the Grand Prix. And with a Ferrari power unit on board, they could well be rapid off the line too.

Esteban Ocon, 13th, 1:20.491

“It’s disappointing, I think we definitely had more to give. When I got out of the car, the team told me that there was a potential loss of rear downforce and that correlated with what I felt, as I had a lot of instability on the last run. If we had improved the final run, then we could have probably just gotten into Q3, so it’s a shame where we are now, but we’ll look into it and hopefully come back stronger.”

Oliver Bearman, 12th, 1:20.311

“I’m a bit disappointed as there were such fine margins, but overall I have to say I’m so proud of the team and the collective effort that has been made to get the car to where it is today. It confirms our feelings from Bahrain, which is that we have a solid baseline, and that’s positive. It’s tough and it hurts to miss out, but with the complexities of these new regulations, we’re really up against it. The job this team has done has been incredible, and the only way is forward from here.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“I think it was a solid qualifying session. Did we maximise everything? No, but I expected a huge challenge operationally, and we didn’t get everything right, but we operated at a decent level – so I’m pleased with that. First and foremost, we wanted to make sure we got out of Q1 with both cars, which we achieved. I think we had the chance to get into Q3 for sure, and it’s really nice that we’re very close to the top of the midfield, that’s where we want to be. We continue to learn every session, we’re just still trying to find the best combination of preparing the tyres and preparing the energy, so there’s more to come. Considering it’s the first qualifying session of the year, I think it’s something we can build on from here. It’s a decent place for tomorrow’s race, so I’m looking forward to moving forward from there.”

Alpine

Not to be for Alpine, who got both cars into Q2 but could go no further. Gasly was comfortably the quicker of the two team mates, and he won’t be too disheartened with being two and a half tenths off Q3 considering where the team were racing last season. They are another team who have looked solid in the reliability stakes too, so keeping it clean off the line and making it to the flag could well pay dividends for anyone in the midfield tomorrow.

Pierre Gasly, 14th, 1:20.501

“I think we are all disappointed by the end result today and we certainly expected much more. It has been a challenging weekend so far with limited running at times and the car has not felt as good as it did in pre-season testing so it is important for us to understand why that is and find some improvements quickly. In terms of my laps in Qualifying, I felt like I was on the limit and I was pleased with my speed and application on each push lap. Of course, we are managing some big changes this year with tyre preparation and energy management and there are still so many things we need to learn. It is not the way we wanted to begin the year and there are more cars in front of us than we would like. We have the race tomorrow, which does have a lot of uncertainties going into it. We know the start will be important and I am focused on doing everything I can tomorrow to improve today's result and see what we can come away with.”

Franco Colapinto, 16th, 1:21.270

“It wasn't the easiest of days on track today and not the easiest weekend so far, where we have struggled immediately out of the box. It's not where we wanted to be or expected to be after a couple of decent test sessions in Bahrain. Some of the other teams look stronger than we thought and have taken a step up here. There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes both trackside and at the factory and we already made positive progress from where we initially started the weekend on Friday. These new generation of cars and regulations are brand new and there's still a lot to learn and understand at each track we go to. It looks like we're lacking a little bit everywhere in comparison to the others, but we have a good idea where to prioritise and improve. We aren't giving up and I think we can move forward in the race tomorrow, where there should be opportunities to overtake and has also shown to be a race where you just have to survive all the way to the chequered flag to pick up a reward. So, we'll try to focus on making a good launch and keep ourselves in contention.”

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director

“Clearly, it's not the start to the season we wanted or expected with both cars out in Q2. We have faced a few challenges this weekend as we continue to get to grips with the new car and fully understanding how best to maximise this quite particular set of regulations. Pierre was a couple of tenths off reaching Q3 after a decent lap which was far from maximised in terms of tyre preparation and energy deployment, so certainly some things and some tricks for us to learn for next time. Franco was slightly further off after he could not quite string together a fully clean lap despite showing some promising pace early on. This is just the first race of this new era and one we will certainly take stock from and implement plenty of ideas going forwards. Tomorrow we are very much in the mix for points given how uncertain some elements of racing could be with new tactics and skills for drivers and teams alike to deploy. I expect us to put up a good fight tomorrow and we will see where that leaves us by the chequered flag.”

Williams

Williams had a very difficult final practice session, with Sainz suffering a loss of power and parking up near the pit lane entry. That cost the Spaniard the rest of his session, and Albon also had a brief moment out on track – but the Thai driver was able to get his car going again.

Whatever was ailing Sainz’s car kept the Spaniard in the pits for Qualifying, and thus he was unable to set a lap time. Albon did go out and made it to Q2, but his final flying run was a scruffy one after he bounced across the grass and he exited at that stage.

Alex Albon, 15th, 1:20.941

“We maximised as much as we could today after we've struggled with some reliability issues this weekend. We were limited in some practice sessions, so to make it into Q2 was a decent result. There is a lot of work to do and it's not an overnight fix, but we’ll keep pushing and look to solve the reliability issues and limitations we’ve identified. For tomorrow I think we can expect some chaos, especially at the start, and not many teams have been able to do proper long runs due to red flags across the weekend, so it could be interesting. From our position we want a little bit of chaos, and we’ll look to keep it clean and take advantage of any opportunities in the race."

Carlos Sainz, 21st, No time set in Q1

“It’s been a very difficult weekend filled with reliability issues across each of the sessions. It’s unfortunate because we seemed to have no issues during both tests, so to come here and only do FP1 and the beginning of FP2, ultimately missing both sessions today, is frustrating. Hopefully tomorrow we can go racing and gather some experience and good learnings, as we’re already on the back foot.”

James Vowles, Team Principal

“We haven't had a clean weekend at all, with only one car competing in qualifying following some power unit reliability issues. We know we are on the back foot and our winter has been difficult but we have a clear understanding of where we need to improve - and fast - and there are already programmes under way to achieve those goals. Our plan for tomorrow is to get both cars to the finish so we can build on the learning we have here and take it into Shanghai next weekend. Congratulations to Mercedes on the P1 and P2 today - that's the benchmark, and it gives us something to aim for."

Aston Martin

Stroll was unable to take part in FP3, due to a suspected ICE problem. Alonso did take part though, setting a timed run and gathering some crucial data for the team. Roll on Qualifying, and the team had not managed to fix the Canadian’s car, so he once again sat out. Alonso came close to giving the team something to smile about though, just missing out on Q2 as the Alpine cars put in very late fast laps.

Fernando Alonso, 17th, 1:21.969

"We ran trouble free in FP3 and seemed to unlock a lot of lap-time in Qualifying by just running more laps. There is potential in the car, so it’s clear we need more mileage. We are short on batteries and so can’t risk too much tomorrow, but hopefully we can do as many laps as possible.

"We face this challenge together and everybody in the team and in Honda have been working flat-out to improve this situation."

Lance Stroll, 22nd, No time set in Q1

"It's been a tough weekend so far with a few issues that have kept us from getting the laps we needed. The team in the garage have been working really hard, but there just wasn't enough time to get the car rebuilt before Qualifying.

"We're not where we want to be at the moment, but we'll keep pushing and keep working to improve."

Adrian Newey, Team Principal

"Another very busy day in Melbourne as we continue to make progress with the AMR26 working with our technical partner, Honda. Fernando was able to run important laps in final practice, giving us valuable data and information heading into Qualifying. Fernando qualified in P17 – just missing out on Q2 – and it is clear there is lots of hard work ahead of us.

"Lance was unlucky today with an ICE issue keeping his car in the garage during practice. After those issues were resolved, there was not enough time to rebuild the car and take part in Qualifying.

"It is clear the AMR26 has the pace to compete, so we will discuss with the FIA tonight our options for running Lance tomorrow.”

Cadillac

Cadillac did well in their debut Qualifying session, getting lap times out of both cars with no obvious reliability issues. They both exited in Q1 which was the realistic expectation, but are less than four seconds off the pace – which for a brand new team is not a bad result. Perez got the intra-team honours, beating Bottas comfortably.

Valtteri Bottas, 19th, 1:23.244

“It was great to be out there completing our first-ever Qualifying as a team. Not the most trouble-free Q1 with the red flag but I’m glad we’ve completed every session so far this weekend. We’re here and ready to race tomorrow so that’s another achievement. We’re lacking performance but it’s a work in progress, which will come. We had to start somewhere with the direction now being pretty clear on where to push and how to develop the car. Looking ahead to tomorrow, we’ll aim to maximize our strategy, see if there are any opportunities and take the chequered flag with both cars.”

Sergio Perez, 18th, 1:22.605

“Today has been a really special day. It’s been a massive effort for the team to be here with both cars, doing Qualifying to a high level and able to maximize what we could do. While it was a challenging session, I was happy with the balance, happy with the lap. All I can ask for tomorrow is to do more of the same. For now, I’m ready to go forward, have a really strong race – the target is obviously to finish.”

Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal

"I’m extremely happy with how the team performed. We have said all along that we would measure ourselves by how we execute and operate as a team and we did that really well today. Our strategy was to have three runs, but the red flag disrupted that, sadly. Valtteri’s car lost a lot of time on the back straight and we need to find out why we didn’t get the most out of the package, but all in all, a fantastic team effort for our first-ever Qualifying. It gives us a solid base to go racing tomorrow.”

Pirelli

Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli Motorsport Director

"Based on performance analysis and the condition of the sets at the end of the sessions, all three compounds could play a role in tomorrow’s race strategies. We believe that a one-stop approach is feasible for the teams, with the Medium–Hard combination being the fastest on paper. This would involve switching between lap 20 and lap 26.

"Some high-fuel runs with a representative number of laps in free practice have also paved the way for the use of the soft compound. If managed correctly, the C5 could be a viable option at the start of the race, with the C3 being used for the remainder of the race, fitted between laps 15 and 21.

"It should be noted that the time lost in the pit lane for a tyre change is minimal at around 21 seconds, and Melbourne's history of race neutralisations indicates a 75% probability of a safety car. Consequently, the possibility of two-stop strategies on Sunday remains real. In that case, teams could opt for the Medium–Hard–Medium combination, or if they want to take a more aggressive approach, the Soft–Medium–Soft combination. After all, there have certainly been no shortage of track stoppages both yesterday and today."