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2025 australian grand prix

2025 australian grand prix/2025 F1 season/Lando Norris/Oscar Piastri

Norris and Piastri ‘free to race but there are rules we cannot cross’ · RaceFans

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McLaren team mates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri say they have been given clear instructions on how they may fight each other on-track.

The pair have locked out the front row of the grid for the season-opening race in Melbourne. Norris narrowly beat his team mate to pole position for his home race.

McLaren’s management of its drivers was called into question several times last year. At Monza, the pair claimed the front row of the grid, but Charles Leclerc passed Norris after he lost time fighting with Piastri on the first lap. Leclerc went on to win.

Norris said the team has given the drivers clear instructions on how hard they may fight each other.

“There have obviously been discussions, we’re prepared because we know we’re going to have more of this kind of thing over the season,” he said.

“There are clearly rules we cannot cross. Both cars must always stay in the race, but we’re both competitors. That’s clear. We both want to fight for victories.

“But there are boundaries around the car – just a little more space here and there. We’re free to race, free to try and win races.”

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McLaren won the constructors’ championship last year but Norris fell short in his attempts to beat Max Verstappen to the drivers’ title. Norris acknowledged both drivers will be keen to seize the initiative in the championship at the first opportunity.

“What won us the constructors’ last year was how we helped one another and how we kept things clean,” he said. “How there was order when there needed to be.

“A lot of that was later in the season when external things were happening. Right now, there’s none of that. So we’re both excited. Of course, we’ll have our morning talks, but that’s normal.”

Piastri echoed Norris’s view that the pair are “free to race each other” tomorrow.

“I want to win as much as Lando does. He summed it up well. I think in any team, not just McLaren, the number one rule is ‘no contact’. We must give each other space.

“If there are opportunities for either of us to take advantage of situations, we will. But ultimately, we are racing for the team. That’s important.

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“We’ve said many times that the teamwork we showed last year helped us win the constructors’. It’s important to recognise that fact. The car has been strong for a while, but also the team is very strong too. That’s as good as I can put it.”

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The key strategy information for following the 2025 Australian Grand Prix · F1 RaceFans

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The first grand prix of 2025 is almost upon us. Here’s the key information for the Australian Grand Prix.

Weather

In the days leading up to the grand prix weather forecasts have consistently indicated a high probability of showers throughout the day. The grand prix is due to start at 3pm local time and as yet there is no indication that will change.

Therefore, depending on how much rain falls and when it does, the track conditions are hard to predict. Very wet conditions could lead to a rolling start or a delay. Teams will have to be on their toes as the FIA has revised these regulations during the off-season following confusion at recent races.

Sunday will also be significantly cooler. Ambient temperatures reached around 33C during qualifying, but are expected to be around 10C lower during the race.

Start

Race start, Albert Park, 2023
Pole winner Verstappen kept his lead last year – but not in 2023

The run to turn one often presents one of the best opportunities for drivers to gain places. The distance to the first corner at Albert Park is not among the shortest on the F1 calendar, but nor is it one of the easiest for drivers to make up places:

Distance from pole position to first braking zone. Source: Mercedes

Last year pole winner Max Verstappen kept his lead at the start. However the year before that he lost the lead to George Russell, who started second. Lando Norris, who took pole position during qualifying today, had a poor record of keeping his lead at the start last year.

Another feature of starts at Melbourne is the sharp right-left combination the drivers tackle first can contribute to collisions, notably during the late standing restart in 2023.

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Strategy

Last year drivers chose the following compounds to start the race on:

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The drivers have the following sets of dry weather tyres available for the grand prix:

DriverHardHardMediumMediumSoftSoft
NewUsedNewUsedNewUsed
Lando Norris111003
Oscar Piastri111003
Charles Leclerc020103
Lewis Hamilton020103
Max Verstappen101003
Liam Lawson101023
Andrea Kimi Antonelli101131
George Russell101103
Lance Stroll010114
Fernando Alonso010114
Jack Doohan201013
Pierre Gasly101004
Esteban Ocon201013
Oliver Bearman201031
Isack Hadjar011014
Yuki Tsunoda011004
Alexander Albon101004
Carlos Sainz Jnr101004
Nico Hulkenberg201022
Gabriel Bortoleto201013

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Last year Carlos Sainz Jnr won the race with a two-stop strategy, using two sets of hard tyres after starting on the medium rubber. Every driver who finished in the top 11 places used the same strategy, with two exceptions: Alonso and Hulkenberg, who started on hards and ran mediums in their middle stint before switching back to hards.

This year Pirelli believes a one-stop strategy is possible. However the forecast of rain means dry weather tyre strategies are unlikely to feature.

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Overtaking

Safety Car, George Russell, Mercedes, Melbourne, 2023
Melbourne tends to see disrupted races

Albert Park has four DRS zones but only two detection points, so getting within range once allows a driver to open their rear wing in the next two zones. The configuration is unchanged from last year.

Safety Cars and VSCs

The parkland circuit has limited run-off space which makes Safety Car periods and suspensions fairly common. Last year the Virtual Safety Car was used twice. That likelihood will influence teams’ strategies and incline them towards delaying tyre changes in the hope of catching a lucky break and being able to pit during a Safety Car period or similar.

The changes to the gravel trap at turn six could have a bearing on how many interruptions we see. It now extends up to the edge of the kerb, and throughout practice drivers have run into it, dragging gravel onto the circuit. That could create an additional hazard during the race.

Grid

The grid for this year’s race is as follows. Any changes between now and the start of the race will be added here:

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Over to you

Who’s your pick to win in Melbourne? Share your views on the Australian Grand Prix in the comments.

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F1 Lap Time Watch: 2025 Australian Grand Prix

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“We are too slow for now,” was Charles Leclerc’s verdict on a disappointing first qualifying session of the season for Ferrari.

Having topped the times on Friday, Ferrari were dismayed to find themselves the sixth-fastest team in qualifying. While that does not appear to be an accurate reflection of exactly how quick their car is, the stopwatch won’t be argued with.
“The feeling overall is not great,” Leclerc told Viaplay after qualifying. “We were struggling quite a lot with the car.

“The balance was tricky, but eventually when you start to struggle a lot with the balance it’s because you’ve got to push more than the actual limit of the car.”

Ferrari appeared to take a misstep with the SF-25 on Saturday. In Leclerc’s efforts to get on top of the car, and those of new team mate Lewis Hamilton who is still adapting to it, the pair fell short of its potential.

Leclerc abandoned his final lap after a series of errors. From his and Hamilton’s sectors it’s clear they were capable of a 1’17.4-1’17.5, instead of the 1’17.7 Leclerc managed. That would have put them in the thick of the fight for the second row, not relegated to the fourth behind a Williams and a Racing Bulls.

Teams’ performance

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McLaren demonstrated they are the team to beat, at this track at least, by emphatically claiming the front row. Their margin was slightly larger than Red Bull’s at this race last year, though they qualified first and third on that occasion (before Sergio Perez’s penalty).

As looked likely after yesterday’s running, Alpine confirmed themselves as the most improved team year-on-year at this track. However while Sauber appeared to have made the second-biggest step yesterday, they fell to sixth once qualifying was over. Curiously, all three Ferrari-powered teams made smaller gains than their rivals overnight.

Haas find themselves in the worst position, having improved their lap time year-on-year by less than three tenths of a second. The slow corners of the Bahrain International Circuit failed to show a weakness of their car, said team principal Ayao Komatsu. “We’re lacking a lot in high-speed corners and we didn’t see that coming from Bahrain testing,” he remarked, “but this is the reality currently and we need to find a solution as quickly as possible.”

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Sector times

The McLaren pair rebounded from poor first laps to produce their best times in all three sectors with their final efforts. Only one other driver put their quickest sector times together in one lap: Yuki Tsunoda, who claimed an impressive fifth.

Don’t overlook his team mate Isack Hadjar, however, who got within 0.009s of his potential best lap. However George Russell must be looking at his sector times and reflecting that Verstappen was beat-able. And in his first qualifying session at Ferrari, Hamilton left a lot of time on the table, but at least showed potential.

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P.#DriverS1S2S3Ultimate lap (deficit)
14Lando Norris25.961 (1)16.997 (5)32.138 (1)1’15.096
281Oscar Piastri26.082 (3)16.952 (3)32.146 (2)1’15.180
363George Russell26.104 (4)16.951 (2)32.297 (4)1’15.352 (+0.194)
41Max Verstappen26.055 (2)16.915 (1)32.421 (5)1’15.391 (+0.090)
544Lewis Hamilton26.150 (5)17.060 (10)32.263 (3)1’15.473 (+0.446)
622Yuki Tsunoda26.190 (8)17.005 (7)32.475 (7)1’15.670
716Charles Leclerc26.184 (6)17.025 (8)32.466 (6)1’15.675 (+0.080)
823Alexander Albon26.186 (7)16.978 (4)32.513 (8)1’15.677 (+0.060)
955Carlos Sainz Jnr26.269 (9)17.000 (6)32.584 (10)1’15.853 (+0.078)
1010Pierre Gasly26.293 (11)17.051 (9)32.560 (9)1’15.904 (+0.076)
1114Fernando Alonso26.300 (12)17.107 (11)32.747 (14)1’16.154 (+0.134)
126Isack Hadjar26.345 (13)17.139 (12)32.682 (11)1’16.166 (+0.009)
137Jack Doohan26.270 (10)17.150 (13)32.784 (16)1’16.204 (+0.111)
1418Lance Stroll26.364 (14)17.151 (14)32.744 (13)1’16.259 (+0.110)
1512Andrea Kimi Antonelli26.443 (16)17.166 (15)32.754 (15)1’16.363 (+0.162)
1627Nico Hulkenberg26.506 (17)17.201 (17)32.722 (12)1’16.429 (+0.150)
175Gabriel Bortoleto26.423 (15)17.220 (19)32.801 (17)1’16.444 (+0.072)
1830Liam Lawson26.548 (18)17.191 (16)32.913 (18)1’16.652 (+0.442)
1931Esteban Ocon26.678 (19)17.206 (18)33.114 (19)1’16.998 (+0.149)

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Field performance

This is the fourth race weekend on the revised configuration of the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. The teams’ lap time gains have been quite consistent over that time.

How close will next year’s radically different cars get to the new benchmark set by Norris today?

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How Tsunoda pulled off ‘perfect’ lap for fifth · F1 · RaceFans

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For a moment, Williams appeared to have produced the surprise of qualifying when Alexander Albon crossed the line to take fifth place off the Ferrari drivers.

But seconds later Yuki Tsunoda produced an even better lap to snatch fifth from his rival.

Racing director Alan Permane was thrilled with their driver’s performance. “Just brilliant,” he said, “a simply perfect lap in Q3.”

Tsunoda could hardly have dreamed of a better result in the first qualifying session after Red Bull overlooked him for promotion to their team. That seat went to Liam Lawson instead – who was eliminated in the first round today.

Racing Bulls had demonstrated their pace on the soft tyres in second practice 24 hours earlier. But that session was held in much cooler conditions.

Come qualifying, many teams found it challenging to keep their tyres in good shape until the end of the lap. But as the afternoon wore on and the track began to cool, the conditions came to them.

Tsunoda produced a solid ‘banker’ lap with his first run in Q3. It wasn’t quite enough to put him ahead of Albon, but he beat Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari by less than a tenth of a second, as well as the other Williams of Carlos Sainz Jnr. That put him sixth, though with Lando Norris losing his first lap time due to a track limits infringement, Tsunoda could realistically expect to slip to seventh, potentially eighth if Hamilton also improved.

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But the luxury of having a solid time on the table meant Racing Bulls could be aggressive with their track positioning. They arranged for Tsunoda to be the last driver to set a flying lap, meaning he potentially stood to benefit most from the improving track conditions.

Leclerc asked too much of his Ferrari, littering his final lap with errors, and peeled into the pits. Hamilton found time, posting a 1’15.973, though he couldn’t replicate his Q2 time. Sure enough, Norris did improve, dropping Tsunoda to a provisional seventh.

Tsunoda opened his lap beautifully, the 02 responding accurately to his sharp steering inputs, and taking generous but judicious helpings of exit kerb at turns two and four. He picked up more than a tenth of a second through his first sector.

Up ahead, Norris had completed his flying lap, and his race engineer Will Joseph warned him Tsunoda was approaching. “Keep an eye on Tsunoda, turn three,” he advised as Norris rounded turn five. The McLaren driver sped up to avoid risking a penalty for impeding.

“Tsunoda, five [seconds],” said Joseph as Norris came out of turn six. He hung left in the sweeping bends which followed and Tsunoda slotted into his slipstream, pulling out at the last second. As he approached the second intermediate timing line his final two mini-sectors went purple and he gained another tenth.

The benefit of Norris’s tow was lost after he scrubbed off speed for turn nine. But that made his run through the final sector – where he gained almost three tenths of a second compared to his previous lap – even more impressive.

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All day the two tight, slow bends of turn 11 and 13 had caught out drivers who had been greedy with their tyres. Tsunoda hit his apexes squarely and came off the corners well. He flashed across the line to set a 1’15.670, which catapulted him past the Ferraris and Albon for fifth on the grid.

“Yes, yes, haha!” exclaimed his race engineer Ernesto Desiderio. “That is an amazing lap, man. P5!”

“Let’s go!” exclaimed Tsunoda, who credited a pre-qualifying coffee for his performance. “Woo! Told you, iced latte’s working, baby. Iced latte.”

Team principal Laurent Mekies added his congratulations. “That’s the way to start the season, Yuki. Very, very proud. What a step – what another step. Well done, mate.”

“Thanks guys,” Tsunoda replied. “Well done for the hard push all the off-season. Car is definitely getting better.”

As he returned to the pits he added: “Maybe we have to give shit to Lando as well, it was a nice tow.”

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“Yeah I saw that,” Desiderio replied. “That was very nice from him. We’ll give him an ice coffee as well.”

But however grateful they were for Norris’s help, this was an excellent lap by Tsunoda in its own right. Without the tow from the McLaren he may not have had quite enough to beat Albon and Leclerc – but his superb run through the rest of the lap ensured he was able to take full advantage of his good fortune.

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F1 pictures: 2025 Australian Grand Prix qualifying day

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George Russell, Mercedes, Albert Park, 2025


Pictures from qualifying day for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix Grand Prix at Albert Park.

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Verstappen happy with third as Melbourne ‘has never been a good track for us’ · RaceFans

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Max Verstappen was pleased to qualify in third place despite taking provisional pole position with his first run in Q3.

The Red Bull driver was six tenths of a second off the pace on Friday, but found a second in final practice. He was close to the McLaren drivers throughout qualifying, and briefly looked set to pull off a surprise in Q3 when Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made mistakes on their first runs.

However clean laps by the McLaren pair at the end of the session left Verstappen third, 0.385 seconds off pole position. Despite having taken pole position for the last two Australian Grands Prix, Verstappen said he was satisfied with the result at a track which hasn’t always suited Red Bull’s car.

“We had a bit of a tough start,” said Verstappen. “This has never really been a good track for us so it took a bit of time to understand how we could improve the situation. We did that today.

“Honestly, I’m quite surprised to be sitting here after yesterday. I felt confident, I felt one with the car, but clearly, we were lacking a bit of pace.”

Verstappen’s new team mate Liam Lawson dropped out in the first round of qualifying after sliding off-track at the end of the lap. Verstappen said the tyre drop-off over the course of a lap was a key challenge.

“Overall, I’m happy with the laps in qualifying,” he said. “I tried to really extract everything. The tyres are quite sensitive around here, with all these high-speed corners, but I’m happy to be here.”

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He said Red Bull’s car “came alive a little more” thanks to the changes they made overnight.

“Yesterday it was, in general, quite okay to drive, just too slow. Today it was a little faster.

“But clearly still not fast enough. Still, to be ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes here is good for us.”

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McLaren drivers surprised as Ferrari threat vanishes in qualifying · RaceFans

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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.”

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Australian GP qualifying data · RaceFans

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Lando Norris and Max Verstappen tied for the most pole positions during 2024. They continued their rivalry as the McLaren driver claimed the honours for the opening race of 2024.

But for F1’s six new full-time drivers the first qualifying session of the season marked a significant moment. And only one of them – the reigning Formula 2 champion – put one over their more experienced team mate.

Teams’ improvement from practice to qualifying

As noted yesterday, Red Bull were far from their 2024 pace on the first day of practice in Melbourne. It was therefore no surprise Verstappen quickly got closer to his car’s true pace in final practice and was in the hunt for pole position.

McLaren looked difficult to beat, however. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner reckoned there was only another tenth of a second in their car.

Besides Red Bull, another team which made a significant step forwards from Friday to Saturday was Mercedes. They had difficulty getting the best from the soft tyres yesterday, but clearly found answers overnight, and George Russell was also in the hunt for pole position.

The biggest surprise of Saturday, however, was surely Ferrari, who made the smallest step from day to day. They seemed to particularly struggle as the temperatures rose during qualifying.

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Gaps between team mates

Only one of the six newcomers to the grid managed to out-qualify their more experienced team mate. Take a bow, Gabriel Bortoleto, who beat Nico Hulkenberg, a veteran of 227 grands prix, by six-hundredths of a second in Q1. It was enough to earn him a place in Q2.

Bortoleto said the first part of qualifying “went smoothly” for him. “We put everything together and made the cut. I think making it into Q2 in my first-ever qualifying is definitely not bad.”

However he had a lurid moment in Q2 when the car nearly got away from him in turn four. “I wanted to give it a shot at Q3 and pushed a little too hard on my lap,” he admitted. “I still managed to keep the car on track, but it didn’t really make sense to try again. Still, I think we can be quite satisfied with the job done today.”

Several of the new drivers had substantial deficits to their team mates, but there were mitigating factors associated with the largest of those. Liam Lawson was on course to improve when he went off, Jack Doohan was disadvantaged by being unable to use his DRS because Lewis Hamilton had spun off in front of him, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli damaged his floor.

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NB. Oliver Bearman did not set at time

Team mate battles

Fernando Alonso also had floor damage, but F1’s most experienced driver still managed to out-qualify his team mate. He extended his streak of races in which he’s beaten Lance Stroll, which is the longest such run of anyone on the grid.

Last year, Lewis Hamilton was beaten by team mate George Russell at Mercedes, and he wasn’t surprised to find himself behind Charles Leclerc after their first qualifying session together. However Ferrari’s new driver said he was “pleased” to be as close as he was.

DriverConsecutive qualifying wins
Fernando Alonso13
Yuki Tsunoda9
Lando Norris8
Max Verstappen8
George Russell7
DriverConsecutive qualifying losses
Lance Stroll13
Liam Lawson9
Oscar Piastri8
Lewis Hamilton7

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Q3 appearances

George Russell has the longest run of consecutive Q3 appearances at present. He last failed to reach Q3 at the Hungarian Grand Prix when he dropped out in Q1.

DriverConsecutive Q3 appearances
George Russell12
Lando Norris8
Oscar Piastri5
Max Verstappen4
Carlos Sainz Jnr4
Pierre Gasly2

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Snatching pole away from Piastri at his home track is “bittersweet” for Norris · F1 · RaceFans

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Lando Norris admitted he felt bad for his team mate after taking pole position off him at his home track.

Oscar Piastri held provisional pole position after his final run in Q3. However Norris beat him time moments later, by less than a tenth of a second.

Piastri, who will start alongside Norris in second place, would have become the first Australian ever to take pole position for him home race. Norris said he was “pretty sad” to take it away from him.

“I’d say it’s bittersweet because I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t want to upset people,” said Norris. “But it’s my job. It’s what I get paid to do, it’s what’s written in my contract and I have to go out and drive as quick as I can.”

The crowd in Melbourne – Piastri’s home city – erupted in cheers when he set the fastest time, but quietened when Norris took it off him.

“It’s difficult because every country backs their drivers,” said Norris. “It’s the same for Max [Verstappen] in Zandvoort and Spa, Austria – all of those ones. And it’s the same for me at Silverstone. And Belgium actually, I’ll claim that one, and therefore, kind of, the Netherlands too.

“At the end of the day, my job is to drive as quickly as I can. If that’s pole, then that’s pole. I’m happy I did my job.

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“But I do want to make it out of Australia safely! The fans have always been very supportive of me too. I’ve had an Australian team mate for quite a while now, so I’ve got used to it. They do cheer me on as well. I know they cheer Oscar on a lot more, but that’s expected and I appreciate the support I do get.”

This is Piastri’s third grand prix at home and his first since becoming a grand prix winner last year. Despite the added interest of it being the first round of the championship, Piastri said “this is the most relaxed I’ve been at my home race.”

“The first two years, especially the first year I came here, it was an overwhelming experience,” he explained. “Even last year, it was still a pretty big experience.

“This year, I’ve been able to enjoy it more. Maybe because I’m more confident in the car under me, but I’ve really been enjoying it and enjoying the support.

“I feel like it’s gone up a little since last year as well. It’s amazing what happens when you start winning stuff. It’s great to have all the home support and I really appreciate it.”

He still has a chance to become the first driver to win his home race tomorrow. “It would be really special to achieve,” said Piastri. “I’m not setting my sights too firmly on that, obviously. We’ve got a lot of work to do to maximise the race tomorrow and see what the weather does first.

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“But it would be very special. I don’t really have another way of answering that — it would mean a lot. To have an Aussie on the podium – that hasn’t been done in a while, so that would be a good start.

“If I can stand on the top step, I’ll do everything I can to achieve that. Putting national pride aside, I want to do it for myself as well. I’ll try my best, obviously.”

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2025 australian grand prix/2025 F1 season/charles leclerc/Formula 1/Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton is “pleased to be that close to Charles” on Ferrari debut · RaceFans

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Lewis Hamilton declared himself satisfied with his first qualifying session as a Ferrari driver, despite being out-qualified by his team mate.

The Ferrari drivers will share the fourth row of the grid for the first round of the new season. Leclerc out-qualified Hamilton by 0.218 seconds, which is half the gap between them yesterday.

Ferrari appeared to be in better shape yesterday, when Leclerc set the fastest time in practice. They ended qualifying as the sixth-fastest team behind McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Racing Bulls and Williams.

“We’re not where we want to be,” Hamilton told Viaplay, “so that’s definitely disappointing for us. I’m sure people will be disappointed in the team that we’re not further up [the grid].”

However he was satisfied with his first performance for the team in qualifying. “I just see it as a new experience each time,” he said. “For me to be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the red car when he knows it so well, I’m pretty comfortable with that.

“I just know I’ve got more work to do. Tomorrow will be my first time in the wet [in this car] as well.”

Hamilton said working at Ferrari is “night and day different” compared to his previous team, Mercedes.

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“It’s just everything: The way we work in the engineers’ office, the way we go through strategies, just the terminology that’s used for everything.

“The way they go through data is different. All the tools are just different, it’s like you’re looking at another language.

“I’ve been doing it for so long and I know these things but it’s telling me something different on there. So learning all these new tools and how to communicate with the team is taking its time, particularly when you’re on-track working with your engineer. But it’s been amazing.”

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