Australia - Qualifying

 To talk about the qualifying in Albert Park, we first need to mention a crash from Friday's FP1. After putting in a few laps, Alex Albon lost control of his car and crashed, causing significant damage. Prices of debris covered the track, along with a front wheel that flew off after his contact with the wall. The driver wasn't able to participate in FP2 and before FP3, disturbing news emerged from Williams' garage; the chassis of Albon's car was damaged and the team did not have a spare. That meant one of their cars could not be used throughout the weekend. Soon after a decision was made by Williams' team principal, James Vowels. He revealed that Logan Sargeant's car would be given to Alex Albon for the remainder of the weekend, forcing the American to sit out the race through no fault of his own. The decision was rather controversial among fans. It was because of it that going into qualifying, we could see 19 cars on the track instead of the usual 20. 

After the dramatic start to the weekend and with immense pressure on his shoulders, Albon was one of the first drivers to appear on the track. The first half of the session went by smoothly, with only a small brush of the wall against the side of Ocon's Alpine and Verstappen's complaints about 'So much understeer'. Ferrari and Red Bull quickly established themselves as the frontrunners in the fight for the pole, while Mercedes struggled to place any higher than P9. By the end of the first 18 minutes, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Gasly, and Zhou found themselves on the chopping block. The Australian was close to making it into Q2, but a run that would let him cross the threshold was deleted for exceeding track limits. 

Q2 saw Carlos Sainz flying despite his recent surgery. The fight between the Ferraris and the Red Bulls continued while the Mercedeses lingered around P7. For a while, it seemed like there wouldn't be much shock regarding the people who couldn't make it into a third session, but then Lance Stroll's and Yuki Tsunoda's last-minute laps knocked out Hamilton from the top 10. Aside from him, Albon, Bottas, Magnussen, and Ocon also found themselves in the drop zone. 

The day concluded in an emotion-filled Q3. About halfway through, Alonso faced a terrifying moment when he drove onto the gravel around turn 6. Thankfully, he managed to recover the car without further issues. Verstappen found pace when it mattered most and secured yet another pole position. Sainz put in a great lap that landed him P2, with Sergio Perez in a comfortable third position. It was however only temporary joy for the Mexican since soon after the qualifying session ended, he received a penalty for impeding Hulkenberg and dropped to P6. This moved Norris to P3, Leclerc to P4, and Piastri to P5. Interestingly enough, the Monegasque managed to get the spot without completing his last flying lap in Q3 since, due to an unfortunate turn, he decided to bail midway through. The top ten was closed out by Russel, Tsunoda, Stroll, and Alonso. Or

Order of the grid:der of the grid:

1. Max Verstappen

2. Carlos Sainz

3. Lando Norris

4. Charles Leclerc

5. Oscar Piastri

6. Sergio Perez

7. George Russel

8. Yuki Tsunoda

9. Lance Stroll

10. Fernando Alonso

11. Lewis Hamilton

12. Alex Albon

13. Valtteri Bottas

14. Kevin Magnussen

15. Esteban Ocon

16. Nico Hulkenberg

17. Pierre Gasly

18. Daniel Ricciardo 

19. Zhou Guanyu