Lewis Hamilton was left scratching his head as Ferrari claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, despite their porpoising problems. Charles Leclerc bounced his way down to pole position at Albert Park, and will start Sunday's race alongside title rival Max Verstappen on the front row. Hamilton was only able to qualify fifth, close to an entire second slower than Leclerc, with porpoising once again blamed for Mercedes' lack of pace. But the seven-time World Champion was left confused on Saturday evening after he witnessed Ferrari set the fastest lap, even though the Scuderia are still suffering with bouncing problems of their own. "I don't understand it and I don't think anyone does," Hamilton told media including RacingNews365.com . "I wish ours was the same, but it's not."
Hamilton: Porpoising can be dangeous
During Friday practice, Hamilton's teammate George Russell complained that his car was bouncing worse than ever before down Melbourne's back 'straight'. The reason for his complaints were clear to see during qualifying, with Mercedes porpoising severely between Turns 10 and 11. Hamilton thinks that the sensation can be dangerous, after he came close to losing control of his car during Free Practice 2 on Friday while travelling in a straight line. That DRS zone has since been removed by the FIA. "Where I am really unhappy is the porpoising. That is the worst characteristic I've experienced in a car - but we can't get rid of that at the moment," Hamilton continued. "It can be [dangerous] in certain scenarios. I think it was good that they took the DRS off that back straight. "We had so much porpoising down that back straight that I had an oversteer moment in the middle of a straight. It was like: 'This is ridiculous.'"
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