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.
anon
Roar Pro
Ricciardo well and truly has his hands full with Hulkenberg. Renault have made him the third highest paid driver on the grid and he's not delivering at this stage. The only reason they paid Ricciardo so much money was because they thought he was better than Hulkenberg. RBR looks to have done the right thing backing Verstappen over Ricciardo.
anon
Roar Pro
He beat Bottas by a tenth I'm not sure it's a mighty lap.
anon
Roar Pro
Boring stuff. No contest. 2014 all over again except Bottas is terrible.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Thanks for tuning in throughout the day for the live blog updates from the Australian Grand Prix. Now it is time for the big one tomorrow and I shall be back from 3:40pm AEST for a full build up to the first race of 2019. Ciao.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
A front-row lockout then for the reigning world champions, with Lewis Hamilton equaling the record set by Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher for six consecutive pole positions at a single race venue. Valtteri Bottas was pipped by a tenth in the end by his Silver Arrows teammate, but will have the benefit of starting on the front-row of the grid and ahead of the Ferrari cars - who will be led by Sebastian Vettel. Max Verstappen in Red Bull's first qualifying with Honda ended up fourth fastest and will start on the second row of the grid, denying an all Ferrari line up in third and fourth - with Charles Leclerc relegated to fifth in his debut race for the Scuderia. The star of qualifying arguably was McLaren rookie Lando Norris, who made it into Q3 in his first ever qualifying and qualified eighth overall. All while his more experienced teammate in Carlos Sainz was eliminated in Q1. Aussie fans would have been left disappointed with Renault's Q2 exit, with Daniel Ricciardo eliminated in twelfth position and behind Nico Hulkenberg.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Mighty lap from the World Champion - I didn't think he had that in him. Proved me wrong! Ferrari just showed us what a sham winter testing is. Max driving the wheels off that thing. Haas king of the midfield. Lando Norris will start his first Grand Prix in 8th! On the 4th row, nearly ten places in front of his teammate. Wowsers. Thank You Jawad for hosting this, can't wait for the big race tomorrow!
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
QUALIFYING RESULTS 1 44 Lewis Hamilton 1:20.486 2 77 Valtteri Bottas 1:20.598 3 5 Sebastian Vettel 1:21.190 4 33 Max Verstappen 1:21.320 5 16 Charles Leclerc 1:21.442 6 8 Romain Grosjean 1:21.826 7 20 Kevin Magnussen 1:22.099 8 4 Lando Norris 1:22.304 9 7 Kimi Räikkönen 1:22.314 10 11 Sergio Perez 1:22.781 11 27 Nico Hulkenberg 1:22.562 12 3 Daniel Ricciardo 1:22.570 13 23 Alexander Albon 1:22.636 14 99 Antonio Giovinazzi 1:22.714 15 26 Daniil Kvyat 1:22.774 16 18 Lance Stroll 1:23.017 17 10 Pierre Gasly 1:23.020 18 55 Carlos Sainz 1:23.084 19 63 George Russell 1:24.360 20 88 Robert Kubica 1:26.067
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
LEWIS HAMILTON CLAIMS HIS EIGHTH AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX POLE POSITION
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
And Bottas who was flying through the first two sectors misses out by 0.112 then.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 0:00 Hamilton P1 by a tenth!
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 1:00 Hamilton sets the fastest first sector of all.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 2:00 The flying laps now commence.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 3:20 And they're all filing out of the pits now.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Staggering Lap from the Fin. Staggering. Ferrari incredibly disappointing.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
He stuffed his first Q3 lap, so I'm sure he still has that 4 tenths on hand to Bottas.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 5:30 And breathe! Track goes quiet as the drivers change over tyres and prepare for one last stab at pole.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 6:00 BOT HAM VET LEC VER GRO MAG NOR RÄI PER is the order after the first runs.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 7:30 Bottas is flying! 1:20.598 for the Finn and is ahead of Hamilton. They just keep bettering the qualifying record at this track.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 8:00 Bottas on the better lap at the moment than Hamilton. Grosjean fastest on a 1:21.983.
Jawad Yaqub
Roar Guru
Q3 9:00 And a shaky start to his first flying lap going into Turn 1, but he manages to recover the car.