What a race that was yesterday… from red flags and safety cars to a rookie getting his first points, teammates taking each other out and a great recovery drive by a certain Mexican.
But it was Max Verstappen who won the Australian Grand Prix for the first time in his career, Lewis Hamilton claimed Mercedes and his first podium of the year in P2, and Fernando Alonso takes P3 (which is not a surprise anymore).
The full top 10 are: P1: Verstappen, P2: Hamilton, P3: Alonso, P4: Stroll, P5: Perez, P6: Norris, P7: Hulkenberg, P8: Piastri, P9: Zhou and P10: Tsunoda.
First up, Mercedes! A strong weekend overall for them, and it looks like they definitely have made an improvement to the car. But it wasn’t all happy, after Russell and Hamilton overtook Verstappen at the start of the race, Russell ended up on Lap 18 pulling over to the side on the start/finish straight as he had flames from the back of the Mercedes which brought out a VSC.
On the first lap there was contact between Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc, which saw the Ferrari driver go off into the gravel and him out of the race. A quick stewards’ investigation and they settled on no further action. Poor Charles though, not having the best start this season and he only has 6 points to his name…
A good race for the McLaren duo, obviously Oscar’s first points in F1 and what a place to do it at his home race! Norris aswell scored points, so hopefully this is a turning point for McLaren now and we can see them near the top 10 and getting points in the races.
A good recovery for Perez, he originally was meant to start 20th but ended up starting in the pitlane due to taking some elements. But he did damage limitation, as he climbed all the way up to 5th so grabbed some good points, especially if he wants to fight for the championship this season.
The Championship-
Max Verstappen leads the Drivers on 69 points, with his teammate just behind on 54 points. Fernando Alonso is 3rd on 45 points and is followed closely by Lewis Hamilton whose in 4th on 38 points. To round out the top five is Carlos Sainz who is on 20 points.
Looking at the Constructors, Red Bull is leading on 123 points, Aston Martin are in 2nd on 65 points so a big gap between 1st and 2nd already… 3rd is Mercedes on 56 points, so not too far away from Aston. Now there is a 30 point gap between Mercedes and Ferrari, the Italian team with just 26 points so far this season. And rounding out the top five is McLaren who have 12 points so far.
All ten teams have now scored points already this season! I can see the order changing quite a bit this season, so keep your eyes peeled. On the drivers side of thing, 18 have scored points and its only Logan Sargeant and Nyck de Vries who are seeking their first points of the season.
Now, we have a few weeks break until Round 4, which see’s the first sprint race of the season, and it is happening for the first time at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the 28th April – 30th.
Jordan's F1 Blog 