@Carlossainz55 leads home @ScuderiaFerrari 1-2 victory at #AustralianGP as disaster strikes @Max33Verstappen. #F1

Sainz Australian GP Victory – Carlos Sainz lead from team-mate Charles Leclerc to give Ferrari a one-two finish at the Australian GP as disaster struck reigning world champion Max Verstappen early on.

After the Spaniard took the lead from Verstappen on the second lap with a solid overtake around the outside of the Red Bull at turn ten, Sainz maintained the lead throughout the entirety of the Grand Prix – and his victory in the 58-lap race was secured a tour earlier when Mercedes’ George Russell crashed heavily at turn six deploying the virtual safety car.

After suffering from appendicitis and having his appendix removed two weeks ago, which forced him to miss the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Sainz returned to the top step of the podium for the third time in his career, following his triumph in Singapore last campaign.

When the 58-lap Australian GP began, although Verstappen preserved the lead from his pole position slot, waving away any attacks from Sainz on the opening tour, the championship leader was unable to break out of DRS range after lap one and thus gave the chasing Ferrari driver momentum.

Complaining that he’d “lost the car” briefly on the second tour alongside the Lakeside Drive section of the Albert Park Street Circuit, Sainz was able to push his way past the Red Bull RB20 with DRS activated and take the lead from his efforts.

Verstappen reported further problems with his Red Bull, which started to shoot out smoke from the rear, and intensified around the rear-right corner of his RB20.

The Dutchman began to slow significantly as it became apparent that his brakes caught fire, and the reigning world champion returned back to the pits as the hub started shedding debris to become the initial retiree of the race.

This blew the race complexion wide open, although Sainz had already taken the initiative and started to break-atone for missing out on pole yesterday, building a gap over McLaren’s Lando Norris to ensure he had a comfortable lead when it came to the opening pitstop phase.

Norris had been under pressure from Leclerc but, as the Monegasque driver stopped at the end of lap nine, focused on keeping tyre life and remained out on the C4 yellow side-walled medium rubber until the lap 14.

This gave Leclerc the undercut, putting the Ferrari duo in the top two places: Sainz pitted at the end of the 16^th lap to ensure he maintained his lead over his rapidly-closing team-mate.

The first virtual safety car deployment shortly after Sainz’s stop, was for Sir Lewis Hamilton as his Mercedes F1 W15 entry suffered an engine issue, and it brought Leclerc closer to Ferrari team-mate Sainz and the Monegasque driver had a look at the restart, but the Spaniard kept him at arm’s length before restoring his gap.

Sainz increased his lead to 8.7 seconds before Leclerc stopped again on the 34^th tour as Norris started to close in on the Ferrari driver, but the leader remained on track until lap 41 to make his own stop for a second set of hards.

Leclerc cut the gap to his racing leading team-mate down to five seconds, but Sainz stabilised and increased it back up to half-a-second on the other following tours to create another buffer. Although he complained that his tyres “did not feel great” with three laps remaining, Sainz had enough left to close the lead out – helped by Mercedes’ Russell’s shunt as he was fighting Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

Norris was unable to continue his hunt on Leclerc, having lost two places after his initial stop; Leclerc and home-favourite Oscar Piastri both got in-front through the opening stint undercut, but McLaren opted to switch Norris and Piastri around to give the Briton a chance to chase for second.

But Leclerc posted a string of strong laps towards the end to ease the threat of Norris’ McLaren, so the latter finished third, as Piastri settled for fourth to delight his home crowd.

The other Red Bull RB20 entry of Sergio Perez finished a distant fifth in an off-colour race, where the Mexican lost a position at the start then dropped down the field again after his initial stop. This forced the Red Bull driver to make up ground with DRS assistance, although came up against a hard-battling Alonso in the second half of proceedings.

Alonso took the opportunity to pit under the first virtual safety car when Hamilton retired, which put him ahead of Perez: although the Mexican driver got past, he was unable to shake-off the hard-fighting Alonso from his heel before the final round of pit-stops.

The second Aston Martin AMR24 entry of Lance Stroll placed sixth, moving up a position thanks to Russell’s heavy crash, whilst RB’s Yuki Tsunoda finished a quiet seventh place.

The aforementioned Alonso was hit with a 20-second time-penalty after a post-race investigation by the stewards after they determined the double world champion’s driving before Russell crashed out of the race was “potentially dangerous”. You can read more at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/breaking-alonso-hit-with-post-race-time-penalty-in-australia-over.4h6Fl1W2KOlvkG4UybDXs6

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg score more points for the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit after successfully overcutting Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon during the second round of pit-stops, as Kevin Magnussen also dispatched the Thai-Briton driver to ensure he made the points when Russell retired.

Albon ended the race outside the points in 11^th place after taking over team-mate Logan Sargeant’s Mercedes-powered FW46 entry for the rest of the Australian Grand Prix weekend after his FP1 shunt, with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo taking 12^th at his home race.

Despite being hit with a five-second time penalty for crossing the pit-exit line too early, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was 13^th in the classification.

Sauber’s Bottas and Zhou ended the Grand Prix in 14^th and 15^th as Alpine’s Ocon brought up the rear.

2024 Australian GP – The Top Three

2024 Australian GP Winner – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24:

“It was a really good race, physically it wasn’t the easiest but I was mostly on my own so I could manage the pace, manage the tyres. Life is crazy, what happened at the beginning of the year, the podium in Bahrain, the appendix in Saudi and the win here. I will recommend all the drivers to take [their appendix] out next winter!”

2^nd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24, +2.366s:

“It feels good mostly for the team of course, first and second didn’t happen since Bahrain 2022. Carlos has had an incredible weekend to come back from his surgery, he’s done an amazing race. “In the first stint we had to protect from behind so had to stop earlier, as soon as we stopped at the first stop it was clear – but Carlos has done a better job all weekend and deserves the victory.”

3^rd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL38, +5.904s:

“A very good day for us, very happy and proud of the team. We missed out on Charles; I think our pace was better, but he undercut us in the first stint. I felt good, I felt I could manage the tyres well. I wasn’t really expecting to be on the podium so very happy. It’s clear that this circuit suits us a little bit more, but it is still another step to Ferrari and Red Bull, we need to catch up, but it is clear we are getting closer.”

Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2024 Race Results Classification (58 Laps)

Note – Leclerc scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. Car #2 (Logan Sargeant, Williams) withdrawn. Gasly received a five-second time penalty for crossing the line at the pit exit. Alonso received a drive-through penalty converted to 20-second time penalty for potentially dangerous driving.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1231/australia/race-result.html

Click here for the 2024 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings.

Round four of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous Suzuka International Racing Course in Suzuka, Mie-Prefecture, Japan for the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Japanese Grand Prix 2024 from Friday April 5-Sunday April 7.

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