Verstappen wins bonkers Australian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen was the calmest person in Australia “this morning” as the back-to-back World Champion took victory at Albert Park ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
The Biggest Talking Points
There is a lot to talk about regarding this race! George Russell got a brilliant start to take the lead from Max Verstappen in the first corner and the Dutchman was then passed by his 2021 title rival Lewis Hamilton at turn 3. At the same corner, Charles Leclerc collided with Lance Stroll, resulting in the Monegasque getting beached in the gravel. The Safety Car came out and when it returned to the pits, it was a Mercedes 1-2 as Poleman Max Verstappen was down to third. Alex Albon, who was running in a brilliant 6th position, crashed his car at turn 7 resulting in another Safety Car. Both George Russell and Carlos Sainz boxed for new tyres, but this proved to be disastrous for them as the red flag was then brought out meaning everyone could change their tyres whilst staying in the same position. When the race got back underway, Lewis Hamilton came out of turn 1 still in the lead, but Verstappen was able to breeze past him just a few laps later. Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and George Russell were all starting to climb through the field before the Brit’s engine blew up resulting in the third retirement of the day and a Virtual Safety Car. Sergio Perez continued to make progress through the field whilst Max Verstappen had a comfortable gap to second-place man Lewis Hamilton whilst Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly were all hunting him down. The big moment then came on lap 54 as Kevin Magnussen made a stupid error that resulted in a big incident as his tyre went flying off the car. A Safety Car was originally deployed before the FIA flew a second red flag of the day. This meant we were going to get 2 laps of racing to decide today’s race winner.
Max Verstappen got a brilliant start from Pole to keep Lewis Hamilton behind before Carlos Sainz tagged his compatriot Fernando Alonso at the first corner starting literally chaos. Sergio Perez went flying off the track whilst the two Alpine’s crashed into each other ending both men’s races. It was such a shame for Pierre Gasly as he was having a brilliant race, but he was definitely at fault for the collision with Esteban Ocon. Lance Stroll then went way too deep into turn 3 whilst trying to keep hold of a podium position whilst back at turn 1, Nyck de Vries was stuck in the gravel trap after Logan Sargeant completely took him out. Due to all of this mess, another red flag was called, but now there was confusion over the results of the race. Because the red flag was called out before a sector had been completed, the lap was basically null and void meaning Fernando Alonso was going to retain his podium whilst Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda were going to be demoted from P4 and 5 back to 9th and 13th. However, the Alpine’s were still going to be out of the race and the most confusing part came when Carlos Sainz was given a 5-second time penalty for his collision with Fernando. In the end, the final lap was driven behind the Safety Car as Max Verstappen took victory whilst Carlos Sainz dropped from 4th to 12th. If you’re confused, don’t worry, I am too!
The Standout Drives in the Race
I’ve given a total of three 10's out for this race. The first person is obviously Max Verstappen who drove really cleverly and I was particularly impressed by his start on the third restart. I’ve also given a 10 to Lewis Hamilton as I think he drove a brilliant race that saw him keep out of trouble and he had super pace against Fernando Alonso’s Aston. Finally, I’ve given out a ten to Lando Norris. Lando was so good today, he was really quick and he also avoided the chaos. I also thought Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, Oscar Piastri and George Russell had excellent drives.
Drivers who Struggled
In total, I’ve only given out one 1 and that is for Alex Albon. Alex was having a terrific first 8 laps, but his crash was awful. It was a terrible mistake anyway, but particularly when he was running in as high of a position as he was. I also thought both Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant had stinkers mainly due to them causing stupid incidents.
Overall Race Results and my Ratings
Max Verstappen: 10
Lewis Hamilton: 10
Fernando Alonso: 9
Lance Stroll: 7
Sergio Perez: 9 (FL)
Lando Norris: 10
Nico Hulkenberg: 9
Oscar Piastri: 9
Zhou Guanyu: 8
Yuki Tsunoda: 8
Valtteri Bottas: 6
Carlos Sainz: 6
Pierre Gasly: 7 (DNF)
Esteban Ocon: 6 (DNF)
Nyck de Vries: 4 (DNF)
Logan Sargeant: 2 (DNF)
Kevin Magnussen: 2 (DNF)
George Russell: 9 (DNF)
Alex Albon: 1 (DNF)
Charles Leclerc: - (DNF)
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