Leclerc dominates Australian GP, Verstappen retires again

Charles Leclerc achieved the most dominant victory in Formula 1, winning by more than 20 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez, while Max Verstappen retired due to a fuel system failure in his Red Bull.

Leclerc had superior speed over everyone else at all times during the race, building an advantage over his rivals several times and achieving his second win of the season and fourth in his F1 career.

Perez finished second after Verstappen retired in the lap 39, and Russell completed the podium for Mercedes ahead of team-mate Hamilton.

Leclerc and Verstappen retained the lead at the start of the race, but Hamilton overtook Norris and Perez and took third place ahead of Perez, Russell and Norris.

Sainz got off to a bad start and fell behind Schumacher in 14th place, and in the second lap he spun in the third sector after cutting the ninth turn and got stuck in a gravel trap that was the end of his race.

The incident caused first a virtual and then a real safety car that retreated to the pits at the end of the sixth lap.

Perez overtook Hamilton in braking zone for Turn 3 in the lap 10 and Leclerc had a 5.6-second lead in the lap 14 over Verstappen who complained that his front left tyre was in poor condition.

2022-Australian-GP-start-of-the-race-Photo-Red-Bull-Edited-by-MAXF1net

Verstappen enters the pits at the end of lap 18 after Leclerc built a big nine-second lead, replacing medium tyres with hard and returning to seventh place ahead of Alonso who started on hard and just managed to overtake Gasly.

Perez takes new tyres at the end of lap 20 after being under pressure from Hamilton and Norris at McLaren follows him and returns to 12th place.

In the next round, both Leclerc and Hamilton enter the pits – Leclerc returned ahead of Russell, who was not yet in the pits, and Hamilton overtook Perez, who regained his position on the track.

Vettel spun in the Turn 4, crashed into a wall and stood next to the track in lap 24 and triggered a safety car, Russell taking advantage of that, changing his tyres in those conditions and returning to third place behind Leclerc and Verstappen.

Alonso did not enter the pits and held fourth place ahead of Perez and Hamilton, and the safety car withdrew at the end of the 26th lap.

Leclerc did a bad re-start and gave Verstappen a chance to attack, but managed to defend himself by taking the inside on the brakes for the first corner and kept the lead.

Alonso on much older tyres has no chance of defending his position from Perez and Hamilton overtaking him in the 30th and 31st laps while McLaren drivers Norris and Ricciardo overtook Magnussen who was also not yet in the pits.

Perez managed to overtake Russell in lap 36 in the fight for third place, and Verstappen retired in lap 39 due to an fuel system failure – Alonso and Magnussen used their chance to make tire changes in virtual safety car conditions while Albon was the only one yet to make his tire change and so he held seventh place.

Leclerc celebrated convincingly with more than a 20-second lead over Perez, and Russell finished third and achieved the first podium for Mercedes, the second in his career after the 2021 Belgian GP in Williams.

Hamilton finished fourth in the second Mercedes ahead of two drivers McLaren Norris and Ricciardo and Ocon finished seventh for Alpine.

Bottas drove a good race for Alfa Romeo after a fight with Stroll and finished eighth ahead of Gasly in AlphaTauri and Albon in Williams who won the last point by changing tyres in the last lap of the race.

Zhou was 11th in the second Alfa Romeo ahead of Stroll at Aston Martin who received a five-second penalty for too many side changes in defense against Bottas, and Aston Martin is the only team without points after three races.

Haas drivers Schumacher and Magnussen finished 13th and 14th ahead of Tsunoda and Latifi, and Alonso was the last of the drivers to finish the race due to two tyre changes and poor speed and degradation on medium tyres.

The next race will take place in two weeks in Imola.

AUSTRALIAN GP RESULTS

1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	58	–
2	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	58		20.524
3	63	George Russell	Mercedes	58		25.593
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	58		28.543
5	4	Lando Norris	McLaren/Mercedes	58		53.303
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren/Mercedes	58		53.737
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine/Renault	58		1:01.683
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo/Ferrari	58		1:08.439
9	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri/Red Bull	58		1:16.221
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams/Mercedes	58		1:19.382
11	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo/Ferrari	58		1:21.695
12	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin/Mercedes	58		1:28.598
13	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas/Ferrari	57	–	1 lap
14	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	57	–	1 lap
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri/Red Bull	57	–	1 lap
16	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams/Mercedes	57	–	1 lap
17	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine/Renault	57	–	1 lap

	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	38	–	Retired
	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin/Mercedes	22	–	Retired
	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1	–	Retired

Fastest lap: Charles Leclerc – 1:20.260 (lap 58)

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 3/23 RACES

1	Charles Leclerc	71	26	19	26
2	George Russell	37	12	10	15
3	Carlos Sainz Jr.	33	18	15	–
4	Sergio Pérez	30	–	12	18
5	Lewis Hamilton	28	15	1	12
6	Max Verstappen	25	–	25	–
7	Esteban Ocon	20	6	8	6
8	Lando Norris	16	–	6	10
9	Kevin Magnussen	12	10	2	–
10	Valtteri Bottas	12	8	–	4
11	Daniel Ricciardo	8	–	–	8
12	Pierre Gasly	6	–	4	2
13	Yuki Tsunoda	4	4	–	–
14	Fernando Alonso	2	2	–	–
15	Zhou Guanyu	1	1	–	–
16	Alexander Albon	1	–	–	1
17	Mick Schumacher	0	–	–	–
18	Lance Stroll	0	–	–	–
19	Nico Hülkenberg	0	–	–
20	Nicholas Latifi	0	–	–	–
–	Sebastian Vettel	0			–

CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

1	Ferrari	104	44	34	26
2	Mercedes	65	27	11	27
3	Red Bull	55	–	37	18
4	McLaren/Mercedes	24	–	6	18
5	Alpine/Renault	22	8	8	6
6	Alfa Romeo/Ferrari	13	9	–	4
7	Haas/Ferrari	12	10	2	–
8	AlphaTauri/Red Bull	10	4	4	2
9	Williams/Mercedes	1	–	–	1
10	Aston Martin/Mercedes	0	–	–	–