Race weekend review
As the sun shone bright, the spirits were high in Melbourne as the drivers and teams arrived at Albert Park Circuit. Smiles were all around; Daniel Ricciardo returned to the paddock and Oscar Piastri would finally race at his first home grand prix.
There was a variety of cars in the top three for all of the practice sessions. In FP1, it was a Red Bull sandwich with Lewis Hamilton placed between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
In FP2, it was a wet session where Fernando Alonso came out on top ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen. And in the final practice session, Verstappen was top once again, followed by Alonso and a surprise appearance from Ocon.
It was an intense qualifying session where at the start it looked like it would be straightforward by the start of the session but by Q3, it could have been anyone’s game.
Perez was out in Q1 after he locked up at Turn 3, beaching his car in the gravel. The session was over quickly for him. Sargeant brought out the yellow flag when he went off track before that incident and was unable to set a fast enough time. It wasn’t to be for Piastri who was out in Q1 of his home GP; both Alfa Romeos failed to escape elimination too.
Out in Q1: Piastri, Zhou, Sargeant, Bottas, Perez
The front runners made their mark quite comfortably, Hulkenberg also impressing. Also caught out in Turn 3 like Perez, but able to continue on, was Norris. Unfortunately, the brit just didn’t have the pace to see him make top 10. Ocon missed out Q3 to Albon by 0.007s, the Thai driver was having a good weekend in Australia.
Out in Q2: Ocon, Tsunoda, Norris, Magnussen, De Vries
On provisional pole sat Verstappen, ahead of Hamilton and Alonso in the top 10 shootout. Verstappen reported gearshift problems which might have given other teams hope; but it didn’t seem to be a real issue for the Dutchman as his final flying lap saw him improve and seal the deal, taking his first pole position in Australia. Russell would end up joining him on the front row ahead of Hamilton and Alonso.
Top 10: Verstappen, Russell, Hamilton, Alonso, Sainz, stroll, Leclerc, Albon, Gasly, Hulkenberg
Race Review
Verstappen took his second race win of the season after a start which saw him drop to third behind both Mercedes. He got passed Hamilton, built up a large lead and managed to keep his lead even after it was cut short due to multiple safety cars and red flags. Perez, had quite a good race; he worked his way through the field to P5, scoring a nice chunk of points.
Mercedes had a mixed Australian Grand Prix. Both cars overtook Verstappen at the start of the race but Russell did not have good fortune after this. He was caught out by the first red flag when he went to pit under the safety car before the race was stopped, he lost many places and was making progress through the field but his race came to an end when he had an engine issue. On the other hand, Hamilton, who drove a solid race, claimed his first podium of the season with a second place finish.
Ferrari had a very disappointing weekend, scoring no points. Leclerc did not make it past the first corner as he ended up in the gravel after contact with Stroll on the opening lap. Sainz was also caught out by the red flag because of pitting under the safety car. He was climbing up the grid and soon settled behind Alonso but the restart after the second red flag saw him spin Alonso and earn a 5 second penalty on the final restart (the formation behind the safety car and final lap) which dropped him out of the points. A pleading Sainz was heard over the radio saying the penalty was “too severe”.
Aston Martin had their highest points finish as a team in Australia. Alonso got his third consecutive podium for Aston Martin. At times he looked to challenge Hamilton for second but when he was spun by Sainz on the second restart, he was pleased with the FIA’s call to revert positions back to the previous lap for the last restart. Stroll had a quiet enough race but he did go wide among all the chaos of the second restart and lost some places, so the Canadian also benefitted from the reverting of positions; ending up in 4th.
What looked like a wonderful fifth place finish for Alpine soon turned into a disaster. With few laps of racing left, Gasly was in for a haul of points; until the restart, when he came back onto the track from all the carnage and collided with the wall and his teammate taking both of them out. No penalty was handed out, therefore, Gasly’s penalty points remain at 10.
McLaren finally had a positive weekend as the team got some points on the board. Piastri earned his first F1 points in P8 at his home GP and Norris drove a great race to get P6.
Tsunoda avoided what would have been a third consecutive 11th place finish this season by grabbing a point in P10 among all the melee (Sainz’s penalty bumping him up a place). Meanwhile, De Vries was hit from behind by Sargeant on the second restart, ending his race prematurely.
Last year Williams claimed a point here after Albon’s incredible 57 lap stint before pitting on the final lap. This year, it was not the same story. Albon had started well and was running in P6 but not too long after the first safety car, Albon spun out into the barriers in Turn 7, ending his race. Sargeant took out De Vries on the second restart so it was a double DNF for the team.
The Alfa Romeo had relatively quite races, but like the others, Zhou benefitted from the chaos, taking P9. Bottas was the only other finisher but non point scorer like Sainz.
It was a mixed weekend for Haas too. Hulkenberg’s side of the garage will be delighted with P7 as he drove a solid race, but Magnussen’s crash into the wall which brought out the red flag that eventually led to all of the madness will be a tough pill to swallow.
We now take a four week break (much needed after this race) before we head to Baku to continue the championship battle.
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