Carlos Sainz claimed a dominant victory at the Australian Grand Prix after Max Verstappen retired on the fourth lap as Charles Leclerc completed a first 1-2 for Ferrari in Melbourne in 20 years.
Sainz overtook Verstappen already on the second lap when DRS was enabled, on the way to the ninth corner, and the Dutchman was then less than a second behind the Spaniard.
But smoke soon began to appear from the rear left brake of Verstappen’s Red Bull RB20 and on the fourth lap he had to retire, with a brake disc exploding as he entered the pits. It was first retirement for Verstappen in two years (2022 Australian GP) which ended his run of nine victories and 43 races in points.
Sainz was untroubled on his way to a third F1 victory after Verstappen’s retirement and Leclerc was able to pass Norris through the pits for Ferrari’s first 1-2 from Bahrain in 2022 and their first 1-2 in Australia since 2004 when Schumacher won from poel ahead of Barrichello.
Norris finished third for McLaren after pitting for the first time five laps later than teammate Piastri, who later let him by after team orders.
The drivers were on a two stop strategy, with hard being the preferred option, with Sainz staying on track the longest of the leaders after switching to ‘plan B’ with a longer first stint lasting 16 laps.
Leclerc and Piastri overtook Norris through the pits during the first tyre changes, but Norris, thanks to five laps of newer tyres, caught up with Piastri, who let him go after an intervention from the team.
Although Norris pressured Leclerc in the second stint of the race, when Leclerc was losing speed due to worn tyres, in the third leg he could not seriously reduce the gap and had to settle for third place.
McLaren achieved an excellent result with Norris and Piastri in third and fourth place, which brought them 27 points, and Perez could not do better than fifth place, although he had the opportunity to overtake Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, while with this result Leclerc is second in the standings, four points behind Verstappen and a point ahead of Perez.
At the end of the race, Alonso was holding off Russell, who was on newer tyres, but Russell made a mistake on the last lap at Turn 6, where he crashed and rolled sideways, triggering virtual safety car conditions.
Stroll had a quiet race in seventh place for Aston Martin, finishing just two seconds behind Alonso, and Tsunoda scored his and his team’s first points of the season in eighth place for RB.
Haas had a great race with both drivers in the points – Hulkenberg was ninth, with Magnussen in 10th being the first driver to be overtaken by Sainz for a lap.
Williams almost managed to grab a point with Albon in 11th, but in the end they remained one of three teams without points after three races this season along with Sauber and Alpine.
The next race is in two weeks in Japan.
2024 AUSTRALIAN GP RESULTS
1 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 58 | – | |
2 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 58 | 2.366 | |
3 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren/Mercedes | 58 | 5.904 | |
4 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren/Mercedes | 58 | 35.77 | |
5 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Red Bull/Honda RBPT | 58 | 56.309 | |
6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin/Mercedes | 58 | 1’20.992 | |
7 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin/Mercedes | 58 | 1’33.222 | |
8 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB/Honda RBPT | 58 | 1’35.601 | |
9 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Haas/Ferrari | 58 | 1’44.553 | |
10 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | 57 | – | 1 lap |
11 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams/Mercedes | 57 | – | 1 lap |
12 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB/Honda RBPT | 57 | – | 1 lap |
13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine/Renault | 57 | – | 1 lap |
14 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber/Ferrari | 57 | – | 1 lap |
15 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Sauber/Ferrari | 57 | – | 1 lap |
16 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine/Renault | 57 | – | 1 lap |
17 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 56 | – | 2 laps |
44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 15 | – | Power unit | |
1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Honda RBPT | 3 | – | Brakes | |
2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams/Mercedes | 0 | – | DNS |
Fastest lap: Carlos Sainz – 1:19.813 (lap 56)
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 3/24 RACES
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |||
BAH | SAU | AUS | JAP | KIN | MIA | EMI | MON | KAN | ŠPA | AUT | VBR | MAĐ | BEL | NIZ | ITA | AZE | SIN | SAD | MEK | BRA | LAS | KAT | ABU | |||
1 | Max Verstappen | 51 | 26 | 25 | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
2 | Charles Leclerc | 47 | 12 | 16 | 19 | |||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Sergio Pérez | 46 | 18 | 18 | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | 40 | 15 | – | 25 | |||||||||||||||||||||
5 | Oscar Piastri | 28 | 4 | 12 | 12 | |||||||||||||||||||||
6 | Lando Norris | 27 | 8 | 4 | 15 | |||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Fernando Alonso | 20 | 2 | 10 | 8 | |||||||||||||||||||||
8 | George Russell | 18 | 10 | 8 | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
9 | Lewis Hamilton | 8 | 6 | 2 | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
10 | Lance Stroll | 7 | 1 | – | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||
11 | Oliver Bearman | 6 | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
12 | Yuki Tsunoda | 4 | – | – | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
13 | Nico Hülkenberg | 3 | – | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
14 | Kevin Magnussen | 1 | – | – | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
15 | Alexander Albon | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
16 | Zhou Guanyu | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Daniel Ricciardo | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
18 | Esteban Ocon | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
19 | Pierre Gasly | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
20 | Valtteri Bottas | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
21 | Logan Sargeant | 0 | – | – | – |
CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |||
BAH | SAU | AUS | JAP | KIN | MIA | EMI | MON | KAN | ŠPA | AUT | VBR | MAĐ | BEL | NIZ | ITA | AZE | SIN | SAD | MEK | BRA | LAS | KAT | ABU | |||
1 | Red Bull/Honda RBPT | 97 | 44 | 43 | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||
2 | Ferrari | 93 | 27 | 22 | 44 | |||||||||||||||||||||
3 | McLaren/Mercedes | 55 | 12 | 16 | 27 | |||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Aston Martin/Mercedes | 27 | 3 | 10 | 14 | |||||||||||||||||||||
5 | Mercedes | 26 | 16 | 10 | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
6 | RB/Honda RBPT | 4 | – | – | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Haas/Ferrari | 4 | – | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
8 | Williams/Mercedes | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
9 | Sauber/Ferrari | 0 | – | – | – | |||||||||||||||||||||
10 | Alpine/Renault | 0 | – | – | – |