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Formula 1
Australian GP
F1 Australian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action from the third round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc set the pace during Friday's practice sessions, while things were not all straightforward for Max Verstappen at Red Bull.
Meanwhile, there will be plenty of attention on Alex Albon at Williams, after the team elected to give him Logan Sargeant's car for the rest of the weekend following the Anglo-Thai driver's FP1 crash.
Final practice is due to begin at 1:30am GMT (12:30pm local time) followed by qualifying commencing at 5am GMT (4pm local time).
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Sainz is the first to set a time with a 1m16.671s for the Q1 pacesetter.
The Ferraris, Red Bulls, Astons, Albon and Ocon all head out straightaway for this one.
Green flag
Q2 is under way and Ocon says "it feels like a bit of a victory" as he is jubilant when told he's part of this second segment.
The stewards will be busy after this one with Albon, Magnussen, Zhou, Perez, Ocon and Russell all being investigated later for not meeting the minimum delta time.
And breathe! That was a dramatic start to the session and with the top five (including a surprise Alonso appearance) separated by two tenths, it's still looking good for an epic Q3 shootout in a little while.
Replays show Ricciardo clearly went off the track at Turn 5, so Hulkenberg, Gasly, Ricciardo and Zhou (who had a damaged front wing) are the drivers eliminated. Full marks to Ocon for getting through despite striking the wall early on.
Oh, but Ricciardo's time has been deleted for exceeding track limits! So the home hero will start the race 18th and that's not what Dr Marko prescribed.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag is now out and as are Gasly and Zhou as they don't improve, but Ricciardo jumps up to 11th to get himself out of trouble.
"Still understeering too much," says Verstappen, which draws a somewhat sarcastic response from his engineer.
Stroll and Ricciardo using qualifying as some race practice there! Before they decide to back out and spread out again.
Verstappen improves to third, a few hundredths behind Perez - always a sign that things aren't quite right for the Dutchman.
Albon goes sixth in the sole Williams - that's exactly the sort of lap that justifies the team's bold decision to give him Sargeant's car.
Perez splits the Ferraris with his latest effort but is still a tenth shy of Sainz's time - both Ferraris are staying in the pits, though.
Gasly, meanwhile, improves to 14th so that puts the under-fire Ricciardo down into 16th at the moment.
Russell is reporting some brake issues but it hasn't stopped him from improving to 10th and dropping Albon into the drop zone.
Gasly is another facing a post-session investigation, this time for breaching the race director's instructions at pit exit.
At the other end of the table, it's Zhou, Russell and the two Alpines at risk of being eliminated currently.
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But now the Ferraris have returned to their customary places at the top of the leaderboard and it's Sainz who is two tenths quicker than Leclerc. The Spaniard showing now ill-effects from the appendix surgery.
Verstappen improves to go second but he's still three tenths adrift of Alonso!
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Now it's Alonso who shoots to the top of the times! Where did that come from?!
Improvements from the McLarens now and Piastri and Norris dump Verstappen and Perez down to fifth and sixth.
The Mercs and RBs have now ventured out and Hamilton goes fifth with his first effort, while Russell is 14th.
Ocon, one of those battling to avoid elimination here, has brushed the wall out of the final corner and punctured his tyre. Not what his struggling Alpine team needs.
Breaking news
We've got notice of a post-session investigation for possibly impeding between Perez and Hulkenberg - that could be a common theme here.
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And, sure enough, the Ferraris now dump him down to third in the times. Leclerc goes two tenths quicker than Verstappen with a 1m17.244s.
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"So much understeer, like crazy," Verstappen reports, so clearly the Red Bull driver STILL isn't happy with the RB20 here.
Perez now slots in two tenths behind his team-mate in second.
Stopwatch
Verstappen now shoots to the top of the times, but he's only four tenths quicker than Magnussen despite them both being on the same soft tyres.
Worth remembering that Sargeant's absence means just four drivers will be eliminated in this opening segment of qualifying.
Stopwatch
Hulkenberg sets the early benchmark with a 1m17.992s that is immediately pipped by a tenth by his Haas team-mate Hulkenberg.
Plenty of other drivers have headed out now and in fact it's just the two Mercs and RBs that are still in the pits.
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We've got Albon's thoughts, though - "There's a lot of leaves on the track," he reports as he turns attention to horticultural matters.
Sargeant has got the headphones on and is watching on from the pits - a penny (or should that be a cent) for his thoughts!
The Alpine and Haas drivers have joined Albon in heading out early for this one.
Green flag
And we're off! Qualifying begins!
We talked about Albon being the sole Williams representative earlier and the birthday boy is clearly keen to make the most of it as he's at the front of the queue at the end of the pitlane.
Sun
For those of you interested, the weather in Albert Park is sunny if not blisteringly warm (it's 19 degrees currently) and the chance of a shower across qualifying is 0% - so one variable teams shouldn't need to worry about!
By: Autosport Staff
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