In the late afternoon on Saturday in Australia, Qualifying got underway in the streets of Melbourne as Ferrari and Red Bull resumed their battle at the top of the standings, as they locked horns once more in their quest for pole position.
And as the dust settled and the track gripped up, it was Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who produced a stellar lap in Q3, beating out Max Verstappen by almost three tenths of a second.
It was an exciting qualifying session at Albert Park, which certainly sets up an intriguing race on Sunday. We look at three key things we learnt from this quali session, and what to look forward to in the race.
FERRARI, RED BULL & EVERYONE ELSE..
The same story was told on Saturday, as Ferrari & Red Bull were lightyears clear of anybody even remotely close to them.
In Q1 & Q2 the first two rows consisted of both sets of drivers, with the next best time being at least three tenths back. And by the end of Q3, the car closest to the two teams, being Lando Norris in the McLaren, was nearly five tenths adrift.
However, perhaps the first mistake made by either side's driver so far was by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who was at first denied a banker lap due to red flags, and there on out the Spaniard could not put a competitive lap together ending up in only P9, just reminding us of the unpredictable nature of the sport.
But once again, Red Bull & Ferrari looked unreachable in qualifying and it will need a miraculous job by the other teams to be able to compete with them for the rest of the season.
MCLAREN RESURGENCE?
Following a wretched start to the Championship, McLaren had an encouraging qualifying session on Saturday, with Lando Norris starting in P4 and hometown boy Daniel Ricciardo starting in seventh.
"It feels like pole position in some ways from where we've been the last few weekends." - Lando Norris
Entering the new era with a lot of optimism, the team from Woking where hoping for a strong start but following a disaster in Bahrain and an average result in Jeddah, it was the worst possible start.
However, it seems that they have made a breakthrough at Albert Park, particularly impressing in FP3, with Norris topping the timesheets, as well as their improved performance in qualifying.
It will be interesting to see what both drivers can do in Sunday's race, and to see whether they can make up for lost ground in Melbourne.
PORPOISING NOT GOING AWAY
There's not question that these 2022 cars have struggled to deal with the bouncing problem that has come with the low floors, but almost three races in, it appears that teams are still massively struggling to find a solution.
Now don't get me wrong, some teams have managed to deal with it well, and have come up with innovative ways to avoid 'porpoising.' But if any track was going to highlight how much it still affects teams, the newly modified Albert Park, initially made with four DRS zones, definitely did the trick.
Mercedes have most notably not dealt with the problem, losing time on the straights to the frontrunners. Ferrari however, have struggled with porpoising in Melbourne, with Leclerc bouncing furiously through the long back straight on his fastest lap, whilst Sainz complained multiple times about the issue.
It's clearly an issue that won't go away any time soon for the drivers, and the teams will have to pluck up some ideas in order to manage the problem as best they can, in order to get the best lap times possible.
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