Charles Leclerc takes the win at the Australian GP with a faultless drive as Verstappen retires with another mechanical issue.
Charles Leclerc and Ferrari drove a race that was as faultless as could be, in front of the 420,000 fans over the course of the weekend, he took the pole, fastest lap and the win, which is the first grandslam for Ferrari since Fernando Alonso at the Singapore GP in 2010.
The start of the race was not all plain sailing for the Ferrari team, as the sister car of Carlos Sainz, who started in 9th found himself in 14th by the end of the first lap, it didn’t get much better for the Spanish driver, while trying to fight his way back up the order he binned it and beached it in the kitty litter ending his race before the end of the second lap.
Carlos Sainz spin brought out the first of 2 full safety cars, much to the delight of Danny in the EverythingF1 team, who has put a bet on that there will be a Safety car at every race this season, 3-0 at the moment.
The first part of the race was pretty settled with Leclerc stretching out a solid lead from Max Verstappen, who was not able to keep the pace with the leader.
Most cars headed into the pits to change to the hard tire, however just a couple of laps later the safety car was out again, this time for Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin, who lost it at the exit of turn 4, the car making contact with the wall and ending the 4 time Champions race. Sebastian’s first race of the season after missing the first 2 races due to covid couldn’t have been much worse, an engine issue in FP1 led to him missing FP2, and a one lap shootout for Qualifying was only possible due to a red flag after Latifi and Stroll crashed.
Sergio Perez had a good race, gathering points for Redbull, he showed good pace with a great pass on Lewis Hamilton to keep him near the front. it was a pretty lonely race for the Mexican as he took seond spot at the chequered flag.
Mercedes/McLaren
Both Mercedes and McLaren have not had the start of the season that they expect, with Lewis qualifying 16th in the last race in Saudi. Mercedes managed to take a 3rd and 4th for Russell and Hamilton respectively, they took advantage of Verstappen retiring to take the podium, however both Mercedes cars had a good bit of pace throughout the race. Once Mercedes get on top of the car they will be in the fight with Ferrari and Redbull.
McLaren have had a horrible start to the season unable to get near the points in the first 2 races, the Albert park track seemed to suit the McLaren car well, they were closer to the front throughout the weekend. At one point they were racing the Mercedes. Lando Norris took 5th ahead of Ricciardo who took 6th.
A final word has to go to Alex Albon and Williams, who took a great point. Albon stayed out on one set of hard tire until the penultimate lap, when he came into the pits for his mandatory stop and secured a point.
Next Race is Imola, the Prancing Horse is on home turf …..