Charles Leclerc lined up on pole for the second time this season with fellow title challenger Max Verstappen alongside. Leclerc got away well and kept his position, Verstappen followed closely behind and his Red Bull teammate ,Sergio Perez, despite making a good start, lost his P3 to Lewis Hamilton. Norris in P4, dropped down to P6 after the first corner.
Sainz’s Disaster
Carlos Sainz was on for a good lap in qualifying until fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso crashed at turn 11 on a quick lap bringing out the red flag, which meant Sainz was unable to complete his lap. When qualifying got underway once more he qualified a disappointing P9. Sainz described qualifying on Saturday as a “****ing disaster”.
Once the race got underway, things got even worse for Sainz as a poor start dropped him down the order to P12. However when Sainz was coming up to overtake Mick Schumacher, he went deep into turn 9, darted off into the grass, lost control, and spun across the track and into the gravel. The Ferrari was beached as a result which ended Sainz's race.
More Disaster for Verstappen
On lap 17, Verstappen was told by his team “fail 20” which often implies a sensor failure or problem, this however may not be the reason for his later problems. On lap 39, as Verstappen exited turn 1, he was told to turn off the engine, pull over and retire his car from the race. This was the second time in 3 races that Verstappen failed to finish, in Bahrain both Red Bull drivers were forced to retire after a suspected fuel pump problem. To Perez’s relief he was told by his team that Max’s problem was "not relevant to our car”.
Battle for 9th
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had worked his way up to P9 which would have been a good result for both team and driver as neither have scored points this season. However, whilst the Canadian was defending his position he received a 5 second time penalty for ‘weaving on the straights’ and would have dropped to P14 at the time. On the same lap that stroll received his penalty, he also forced Bottas off the track as he tried to overtake the Aston Martin.
On lap 45, the team told Stroll again not to weave on the straights as he was still doing it on the main straight and at turn 3, Gasly went for a move once more but went deep and was then under threat from Bottas in P11. A lap later, Bottas was still close behind Stroll and Gasly but Alonso had now joined the fight. Lap after lap, Gasly would attempt a move on Stroll and Stroll was told with 9 laps to go “everything you’ve got” despite having multiple cars right behind him.
Finally on lap 50, Gasly was close enough to Stroll to overtake him and made it stick into Turn 3, Bottas unsuccessfully attempted a move on Stroll who had lost momentum after being overtaken. 2 laps later, Bottas did a similar move on Stroll to move up to P10 as Stroll continued to fall down the order and out of the points.
Chequered flag
On the final lap, after 57 laps on the same set of tyres, Albon finally made his one and only mandatory pit-stop (the regulations state that every driver must make at least 1 pit-stop and also use a different compound of tyre.) Albon came out in P10 which got him and Williams their first points of the season.
On Lap 58, Leclerc crossed the finish line to win the Australian GP and completed his first grand slam of his career, Perez finished second with Russell completing the top 3 to achieve Mercedes' second podium of the season. As a result of his DNF, Verstappen now sits 6th in the championship.
All photo credits: @f1sutton