Winners and losers from F1’s Australian Grand Prix
Winners
Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc couldn’t have wished for a more perfect weekend in Melbourne.
The Monegasque converted pole position into a dominant victory, which, coupled with a retirement for main rival Max Verstappen, has moved him into a commanding position in the world championship.
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Aside from having to cover off Verstappen into the Turn 1 braking zone following a poor Safety Car restart, Leclerc never looked like being stopped on his way to making it two wins from the first three races of the 2022 season.
Leclerc is 34 points clear of Mercedes’ George Russell in the championship after easing to his fourth F1 win, while he holds an advantage of 46 points over Verstappen.
At this early stage, Leclerc and Ferrari look in total control.
Sergio Perez
It is fair to say that Sergio Perez is loving these 2022 F1 cars, and the Mexican had another strong day in the office of his Red Bull while teammate Verstappen endured more reliability woe.
Perez fell behind the fast-starting Lewis Hamilton when the lights went out, but quickly earned the position back when he swept around the outside of the Mercedes into the fast Turn 9/10 complex.
His battle with the Mercedes continued after the Safety Car. After repassing Hamilton for a second time after his pit stop, Perez then hunted down and overtook George Russell, who offered up a determined resistance.
Despite taking a distant P2, Perez achieved the maximum he could on a day Red Bull simply did not have the pace to lay down a proper challenge to Ferrari. A handy points haul has strengthened his championship position and helps keep Red Bull in the hunt.
Mercedes
Mercedes would have snapped off your hand had you told the reigning world champions they would come away from Melbourne with a 3-4 finish and sit second in the constructors’ championship.
After getting fortunate with the timing of the Safety Car - which enabled him to effectively make a free pit stop and leapfrog Lewis Hamilton - George Russell kept his teammate behind to claim his first podium for Mercedes in third.
Mercedes finished a second off the pace in qualifying as Hamilton and Russell locked out the third row, but the W13 produced an encouraging turn of pace in the race, with both drivers lapping faster than the Red Bulls at one stage.
Although the team has made little progress to get on top of its severe porpoising problem, Mercedes will be hoping Melbourne marks the first step in the right direction as it looks to turnaround its early season struggles and emerge as a factor in this year’s championship fight.
McLaren
It proved to be an enjoyable return Down Under for McLaren as the team enjoyed its best performance of the season so far.
Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo converted their strongest grid positions of the year into a solid fifth and sixth place as McLaren finally took a step forward in competitiveness and bounced back from a sluggish start to 2022.
McLaren has managed to get on top of some of the problems it was facing with its car, which clearly has some potential as the team shaved some of the deficit to the very front of the grid over both one lap and the race compared to the opening two rounds.
The result lifts McLaren up to fourth place in the championship, two points clear of Alpine.
Alex Albon and Williams
Williams finally had something to smile about in Australia after a tricky start to 2022, as Alex Albon rose from last place to score the team’s first point of the season by completing the top-10.
A strategy gamble enabled Albon to find himself running as high as seventh as Williams decided to keep the Anglo-Thai driver out until the final lap before making his mandatory pit stop.
It was a move that paid off, with Albon just able to hang on to 10th ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou at the flag.
Up until the race it was looking to be another difficult weekend for the British squad, with Nicholas Latifi suffering a heavy Q1 crash that left him 18th on the grid, while Albon was disqualified from qualifying and forced to start at the very back in 20th after his Williams car couldn’t produce a large enough fuel sample.
Losers
Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen suffered his second DNF in three races when his car ground to a halt with a technical failure on lap 39 in Melbourne, costing the Dutchman a sure-fire second-place finish and leaving Red Bull with reliability concerns.
A frustrated Verstappen blasted Red Bull’s reliability problems at the start of the season as being “unacceptable” if the team wants to have any hope of contending for the world championship this year.
The reigning world champion has fallen almost two clear wins behind runaway leader Leclerc with a bigger deficit than seen at any stage throughout 2021.
There are still 20 races to go in F1’s longest-ever season, but Verstappen already finds himself with a steep mountain to climb if he is to successfully retain his world title.
Carlos Sainz
It turned out to be a nightmare of a weekend for Carlos Sainz, whose Australian Grand Prix ended in the gravel trap.
While Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc claimed pole, Sainz was left with an uphill battle in the race after only managing to qualify ninth. Sainz had looked to be in contention for his maiden pole but lost his best lap of Q3 due to the red flag caused by compatriot Fernando Alonso’s crash.
Sainz's final run was then compromised by issues getting his car started, leaving him unable to properly warm-up his tyres as he failed to improve.
Things went from bad to worse in the race, with Sainz dropping to 14th during an awful first lap after his car went into anti-stall, before running wide over the grass and spinning off in his bid to regain lost ground.
Aston Martin
Aston Martin endured a truly miserable weekend in Australia as it failed to score for the third race in a row, leaving it rock-bottom in the world championship.
After missing the first two rounds because of COVID-19, Sebastian Vettel’s return went horribly, with the German crashing out of Sunday’s race.
Vettel had limited running on Friday after encountering engine trouble and crashed out of final practice, which left his mechanics facing a race against time to fix his car and get him out to complete just a single flying lap in qualifying.
Teammate Lance Stroll picked up a three-place grid penalty for triggering a crash with Latifi in Q1, though the grid drop proved inconsequential in the end given his uncompetitive showing in qualifying.
Stroll managed to finish 12th in the race but a torrid weekend was compounded when the Canadian picked up a penalty point for weaving on the straight in his defence against Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Fernando Alonso
It was a case of what could have been for Fernando Alonso and Alpine in Melbourne as the two-time world champion had a luckless weekend.
Alonso missed out on a potential top-three start at Albert Park after his car suffered a hydraulic issue that sent him into the barriers towards the end of a brilliant Q3 lap.
The Spaniard lined up from 10th and appeared to have the pace to contend for a finishing position inside the top five, only for the timing of Vettel’s crash and subsequent Safety Car period to ruin his race.
It meant Alonso could no longer make Alpine’s alternative tyre strategy work and when he finally pitted, he was stuck in traffic well down the order, eventually finishing a lowly 17th after needing a second stop late on.
Haas
After a dream start to 2022 that had seen Haas go from the very back of the field to mixing it up towards the front of F1’s midfield, the American outfit’s impressive form took a dramatic turn in Australia.
Neither Kevin Magnussen or Mick Schumacher were able to qualify higher than 15th on Saturday. In the race, a disappointing 13th for Schumacher and 14th for Magnussen was the best that could be achieved for Haas’ lapped pair.
Haas will be hoping its sudden performance drop-off was just a blip.
