Key events
Only Haas’ Ollie Bearman logged fewer laps than Lawson across practice, the Brit crashing out in FP1, missing out on getting out onto the track by 120 seconds in FP2 after frantic efforts to fix his car, and then just registering a couple of laps in P3 until he spun out and beached his car.
A total of 13 laps completed. Well… 13 and a half, if we’re being generous.
It wasn’t all that better for his teammate Esteban Ocon, either, who was the slowest of all the drivers who set a lap time in FP3.
The Red Bulls are always ones to watch – seeming to have a lock on the world champion will do that – but there’s an added dimension for this qualifying session.
After looking a bit off the pace in FP1 and FP2 on Friday, the team went to work on Verstappen’s car overnight and he found a new level of pace in his final opportunity to get some reps in, registering the third fastest time in the session.
However, after setting the 16th and 17th fastest times on the first day, Liam Lawson, was limited to just two laps in the final practice session amid problems with his power unit.
Giles Richards is in Melbourne for this year’s race and his piece on the unapologetically dominant world champion Max Verstappen is well worth a read.
Born in Melbourne and growing up in the suburb of Brighton – meaning he would have been able to hear the F1 cars rolling around Albert Park from his house – Piastri logged the fastest time of any driver in FP3 earlier today, logging a time of 1:15.921.
That was 0.039 seconds clear of next best George Russell in his Mercedes, while Verstappen was 0.081 back.
The Maclaren’s widely recognised across the grid of coming into the season with some great speed, Lando Norris also looked on pace to set one of the quickest laps but ran into some traffic, holding up what was being projected as one of the quickest times.
Preamble
Hello everyone and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the first qualifying session of the 2025 Formula One World Championship season, coming your way from the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia.
My name is Joey Lynch and I’ll be taking you through all the action from Down Under as we look to see who has the pace to place themselves atop the grid for the season’s first race tomorrow.
Yet again, Max Verstappen is the hunted; the Dutchman guiding his Red Bull to a fourth world title last season to vault himself further into the pantheon of the sport’s all-time greats.
Will be the season in which the crown begins to weigh heavy on his shoulders? Or tyres, perhaps? There’s a hungry pack chasing him and eager to send a strong message in the first race of the season in Melbourne, led by local-hope Oscar Piastri in his McLaren.
Qualifying starts at 10pm PST/5am GMT/4pm AEDT.
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