McLaren thought they could aim for pole in Melbourne after Friday’s practice. But Mercedes’ dominance in qualifying quickly cooled the team’s hopes.
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The Australian Grand Prix qualifying brought its share of surprises to the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. While McLaren hoped to fight for pole position after an encouraging first day, the reality ultimately turned out to be quite different.
Oscar Piastri will start from fifth position on the grid, just behind Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. A result that generally matches the British team’s expectations, but leaves a mixed feeling after the hopes nurtured on Friday.
The real shock came from the dominance of Mercedes, who completely dominated the session thanks to George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
Mercedes had “hidden its hand”
According to Piastri, the performance shown by Mercedes during free practice clearly did not reflect their true potential. The German team reportedly held back voluntarily before attacking fully during qualifying.
“We are pretty much where we thought we would be. It’s very tight behind the Mercedes, so it’s not a big surprise to be in this position.”
The Australian driver acknowledges, however, that the gap to the Silver Arrows is much larger than expected: “We need to find time, because the sandbags have clearly been removed.”
In paddock jargon, this expression means that a team has voluntarily hidden its real performance during practice.
A cold shower on Saturday morning
After Friday’s practice, McLaren thought they could join the fight for pole position. But the third free practice session quickly changed the team’s perception.
“After yesterday, we were probably a little too optimistic about our real position, Piastri admits. We thought we could fight for pole, but in FP3 we got a real cold shower.”
Read more Violent crash for Kimi Antonelli during EL3 in Melbourne
Despite everything, the Australian driver remains confident for the rest of the weekend: “We need to find more performance, but I’m sure we’ll get there.”
Norris also struggling
On the other side of the garage, Lando Norris also didn’t have an ideal qualifying session. The British driver will start alongside his teammate on the grid, but admits the weekend has been complicated.
With humor, he even admitted that few drivers had actually enjoyed the session… with the exception of the pole-sitter: “It wasn’t very good, nor very pleasant. I think George is the only one saying it was a good day!”
Norris explains that he has encountered several technical difficulties since the start of the weekend, which prevented him from putting laps together.
“I haven’t done many laps. We had several problems with the car and I would have preferred there to be fewer.”
Qualifying disrupted by incidents
The final phase of qualifying was also disrupted for Norris by several unfavorable circumstances. Debris on the track damaged his front wing, further complicating his final attempt.
“Luck hasn’t really been on my side this weekend. In Q3, there was debris on the track and I broke my front wing.”
Despite these difficulties, the McLaren driver prefers to focus on the positive: “Given the lack of laps this weekend and the car’s performance, I’m quite satisfied with my position.”
It now remains to be seen if McLaren can reverse the trend during the race, while Mercedes already seems to have taken a lead at the start of this 2026 Formula 1 season.
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