- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Show Preview
The business end of the Australian Grand Prix weekend is fast approaching, with only 60 more minutes of practice remaining before the drivers tackle their first qualifying session of the new season. Join The Roar for a live blog, starting from 2pm AEDT.
Practice 3 should see the teams go for low-fuel runs in preparation for qualifying, which should hopefully yield some fast times.
The 2018 pole time from Lewis Hamilton of 1:21.164 should be easily beaten – as the new cars have demonstrated that they are indeed faster this year.
Qualifying remains the same format as always, with three knockout stages to determine the grid order and who’ll claim the coveted pole position for the first race of 2019 at the 5.3km circuit.
The first 18-minutes will see the slowest five drivers eliminated, with a further 15-minutes in Q2 to knock out the next five.
The top ten then will have a shootout with 12-minutes on the clock to see who grabs pole.
Friday’s running revealed that Mercedes AMG are once again on top, despite Ferrari having the advantage during pre-season testing.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were untroubled, while Ferrari will be looking to extract more from their package.
A spanner was thrown into the works by Red Bull, who with their new Honda power-units looked very fast indeed. Fast enough for pole? Perhaps not, but good enough to occupy the second row of the grid easily.
As good was the pace shown by their sister team at Toro Rosso, also with Honda power and despite the near misses that rookie Alexander Albon endured throughout the opening day.
Temperatures are set to be the hottest they’ve been all weekend, with it predicted to reach a top of 27 degrees, which the drivers will likely enjoy on the new Pirelli tyres.
Tune in on The Roar from 2pm AEDT for live blog updates from the final practice session at Albert Park, before the fight for pole position in an all important qualifying ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
Hide Preview
Looking for great odds on racing and sport? Get into the action with PlayUp today. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.