The Spaniard will start fourth behind Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton in a classification that placed Checo Pérez in the last position on the grid
For Fernando Alonso, in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, bad news, good news and very good news.
The bad? The Mercedes are back. In the midst of the team’s crisis, with a heated debate behind closed doors about the nature of their car, after publicly admitting that they are “inspired” by the Red Bulls to improve, George Russel and Lewis Hamilton placed second and third on the grid for behind Max Verstappen and appeared as candidates for the podium at the Albert Park circuit. In Saudi Arabia they were already the main threat to Fernando Alonso for third place and this Sunday (07:00, DAZN) the same thing will happen. The Spaniard, in fact, will start just behind them, in fourth position, and the equality predicts a show. The Ferraris will come out behind, with Carlos Sainz fifth and Charles Leclerc seventh, but their problems with tire degradation rule them out, at first, for that battle.
If fourth place is bad news, what is good news? That one of the two Red Bull drivers suffered problems again. This time it wasn’t Max Verstappen, like in Arabia, and this time it doesn’t seem like a solvable problem. On his first launched lap of Q1, Checo Pérez, who had already experienced several scares in free practice, locked his front tires, went off at turn 3 and stayed there, blocked, waiting for the crane. He will start last and in a very narrow circuit like the Australian his chances of comeback are minimal. If he ends up on the podium it will be a miracle, a prodigious, historic performance. Logic places him in the top 8, in the Top 5 if he gets it right.
And what is the very good news? That Alonso is still there. It seems like a repeat, and it’s already a repeat, but at Aston Martin, with such a new car, they still expect something to go wrong on a track, for whatever reason. After the success of Bahrain, they thought it would happen in Arabia and after the success in Arabia, they thought it would happen in Australia. The drama does not come. Alonso’s car is fast, very fast, on all kinds of circuits and it will be like that all season. This Saturday in qualifying, the Spaniard even allowed himself a small error in the last sector to place fourth, always ahead of his teammate, Lance Stroll, who will start sixth.
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