FERRARI AND LECLERC DOMINATE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

Ferrari and Charles Leclerc won the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in dominant fashion, his first in Australia and on the streets of Albert Park.

The win is Ferrari’s first in Australia since Sebastian Vettel took victory in 2018, and came on a day when Leclerc’s closest rivals failed to finish.

Saudi Arabian race winner and reigning world champion Max Verstappen’s engine expired with just under half of the race remaining, the furious Dutchman coming to a stop on the exit of Turn 2.

Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz made a poor start, and trying to recover on lap 2 he made a big mistake trying an overtaking manoeuvre at the fast Turn 9 he ran off the track, spun around and found himself beached in the Turn 10 gravel trap.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo drove a mature race and even put his McLaren teammate Lando Norris under pressure in the closing laps, in the end his came home in sixth scoring his first points of the season.

Sergio Perez was Leclerc’s nearest challenger, in the end he finished 20.5s behind and after a late race excursion through the grass at Turn 13.

Perez was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton at the start of the race but made his way back by at Turn 3 on lap 10.

George Russell benefitted from a mid-race safety car, he pitted under the yellow flags and as a result leapt by both Perez and his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

He did not have enough speed to keep Perez at bay, but could keep his teammate at arms length and in doing so scored his first podium with Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton stayed out of trouble and even closed in on Russell late on, he was unable to get close enough and came home in fourth.

Norris rounded out the top five finishers, just 0.4s ahead of Ricciardo.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon came home in a lonely seventh, while the fight for the the final point position was on in the closing laps.

After a collision with Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas recovered well and finished the race in eighth ahead of AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly.

In fact Gasly held eighth comfortably until an unforced error locking up on lap 54 at Turn 13 saw him run wide through the grass and allow Bottas into eighth.

Gasly held on to finish the race in ninth ahead of Alexander Albon who both scored his and Williams’ first points of the season.

Rookie Zhou Guanyu finished only 2s outside of the points in 11th ahead of Stroll who tried desperately to cling onto a point.

Mick Schumacher finished a lap down in 13th ahead of his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda and Nicholas Latifi.

A badly timed safety car killed Fernando Alonso’s points hope, he rounded out the finishers in 17th.

Verstappen, Sainz both failed to greet the chequered flag as did Sebastian Vettel who crashed heavily after losing the rear of his Aston martin on the exit of Turn 4.

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