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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix after topping final qualifying at Melbourne's Albert Park circuit.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc says risky guesswork has been rewarded with pole position at the Australian Grand Prix.

Leclerc topped qualifying despite being blinded by the setting sun at times at Melbourne's Albert Park circuit on Saturday.

The pacesetter was almost three-tenths of a second faster than reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who says he's having a "terrible" time with his Red Bull car.

Australia's Daniel Ricciardo will start from seventh on the grid in Sunday's race - but he's somewhat peeved.

"I'm a little bit frustrated because probably my worst lap for the weekend was my last one," Ricciardo said.

" ... I felt like I was close to going off the track probably three times in that last lap."

Ricciardo's top time of one minute 19.032 seconds was well shy of Leclerc (1:17.868), who won the season-opening race and then finished second last-start.

Red Bull duo Verstappen (1:18.154) and Sergio Perez (1:18.240) followed the Monaco-born Leclerc, who took massive punts en route to his 11th career pole position.

"Honestly in my first lap in Q2, I took a lot of risks there because I had no idea where was the limit of the track," he said.

"You are just guessing a little bit, it's just with the rhythm of the weekend you know more or less you need to turn here.

"But I really had zero idea where was the limit of the track and it was very tricky."

Qualifying finished about 30 minutes before sunset in Melbourne - crashes prolonged the session about half-hour later than scheduled.

Alpine's Fernando Alonso hit a wall in the last 10-minute qualifying period, forcing a delay.

And racing halted for about 20 minutes in the initial 20-minute qualifying slot when Williams' Nicholas Latifi and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll collided spectacularly.

While the setting sun presented problems for all drivers, Red Bull's Verstappen, who pipped Leclerc in the most recent grand prix, also had other issues.

"It has been terrible for me, the whole weekend so far," Verstappen said.

"I never felt comfortable for one lap.

"It has just been a big struggle and clearly we didn't really seem to fix it, even in qualifying.

"I just struggled a lot with the balance of the car and it just doesn't give you confidence to push."

Leclerc leads the drivers' championship with 45 points, followed by Sainz (33) and Verstappen (25).

But he forecast a tight race on Sunday at a track which isn't his favourite, despite being redeveloped during F1's two-year absence from Melbourne because of COVID-19.

"To be honest, I was struggling also with the previous layout," he said.

"I have always struggled with these types of corners that are not really 90 degrees but just a bit strange."

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, who had started from pole position in the past six Australian races, qualified fifth-fastest.