While 2018 may not seem like that long ago to us today, the 2018 Australian Grand Prix and the innovations that came with it are nearing their 5th birthday!
2018 saw the birth of the Halo to F1 and all the controversy that came with it, many thought of the halo as some ugly useless feature with no telling just how valuable it would become for the sport.
We as fans were first introduced to this halo on track in Australia, but aside from the halo, let’s look back on that race from the track perspective.
We started the weekend off as yet another beautiful weekend in Melbourne with FP1 seeing the Mercedes reigning supreme taking a 1-2 followed by Verstappen’s Red Bull and the Ferrari duo of Kimi and Seb rounding out the top 5. The bottom 5 for the session saw Checo and Magnussen followed by Hartley and the Sauber duo of Ericsson and Leclerc.
FP2 followed a similar outcome with Lewis still topping the timing sheets followed by Verstappen and Bottas and then the Ferrari duo keeping the structure in the top 5.
Saturday saw a change of pace in more ways then one, with the Ferrari’s finding the speed they very much needed Friday with a 1-2 in FP3 and the Sauber of Ericsson taking 3rd, IN A SAUBER. When it came to qualifying, the Hamilton powered Mercedes would take pole followed by Raikkonen and Vettel to set up for a fun start to Sunday’s festivities.
Sunday’s race saw the Ferrari’s chase down Hamilton without help from Bottas who would lull down in 8th. The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel would eventually catch up and overtake Hamilton for the lead and from there it was finished. Vettel would take the flag to come home P1 with Hamilton taking 2nd followed by Raikkonen in 3rd.
For the low-lights, the HAAS duo of K-Mag and Grosjean would both DNF in their dumpster fires of cars.
Danny Ric would have himself a great Sunday finishing ahead of his teammate with a respectable P4.
Overall, the weekend was the beginning of a fun and exciting season in F1 and brought along technologies that would change the history of the sport and the safety of its participants and for that, it may go down as one of the most important seasons in the sports history.
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The Fastest Sector 