Listen to this article Leclerc will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3. Australian Grand Prix qualifying results: Leclerc on pole from Verstappen What happened in Australian Grand Prix Q1? Leclerc set the early pace at 1m19.391s, which was quickly beaten by Sainz on 1m19.179s. Leclerc took P1 back on his second push lap of 1m18.881s, with Verstappen rising to second, just 0.044s in arrears. Verstappen grabbed P1 at 1m18.580s on his third attempt, a quarter of a second ahead of Perez and the Ferraris. Williams’ Nicholas Latifi brought out a red flag for the second Q1 in a row with two minutes to go, as he collided with fellow Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) in a bizarre incident that sent him spinning into the wall. Falling at the first hurdle were Alex Albon (Williams, who has a three-place grid penalty and stopped on track on his in-lap), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Sebastian Vettel (whose Aston Martin was repaired after a big shunt in FP3), Latifi and Stroll. Australian Grand Prix Q1 results: Verstappen fastest from Perez What happened in Australian Grand Prix Q2? Verstappen set the bar at 1m18.611s, which was beaten by Perez on 1m18.340s. On his in-lap, Verstappen appeared to impede Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, which he hadn’t been told was on a fast lap, while stewards will investigate whether Perez slowed enough for yellow flags. In the closing moments, Sainz took P2, ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen. Knocked out at this point were Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri, who suffered a gravelly off), Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) and M …