The Formula 1 world championship was returning to Melbourne for the third round of the 2022 season calendar and, from the start, the Australian Grand Prix became a battle to see which car had more race pace.
The test at Albert Park looked like it would have a lot of overtaking with the track changes, but the drivers were careful to avoid crashes so consistent lap time was key.
The one who managed to perfectly understand the course of the Australian event was Charles Leclerc, who with his Ferrari held the lead from pole position until reaching the top of the podium for the second time this year, increasing his advantage in the world championship with their rivals.
One of them was Max Verstappen, who tried by all means to spoil the party at Maranello, and only on the restart of the second safety car did he embarrass the winner, when he went parallel at turn 1. All the possibilities of the reigning world champion vanished when his Red Bull stalled due to a mechanical failure on lap 39, giving second place to his teammate, Sergio Pérez.
Without making much noise, taking advantage of incidents and safety car periods, George Russell rose to occupy the last spot on the podium, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was battling with the Mexican from the drinks team almost all the time energy until it ran away midway through the test.
The McLarens were resurrected in Australia, and Lando Norris’ fourth place in the standings confirmed the good feeling. The Briton was able to finish in fifth position, just ahead of the other car from Woking, Daniel Ricciardo’s, who scored the first points of the year at home.
Alex Albon, who ended up disqualified on Saturday after not having enough gas in his Williams, signed a great comeback to take seventh place until the last lap, when he gave his place to Esteban Ocon, who was followed by Pierre Gasly and Valtteri Boots. The Thai driver himself was the one who closed the points positions at the Australian Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz went off the track early in the test after falling to 14th position, and ended up retiring after getting stuck in the gravel. The other Spaniard, Fernando Alonso, could not go beyond 17th place after slowly losing his pace in the final laps.
F1 Australian GP 2022 Race Results
| Cla | Pilot | Chassis | Difference | Interval | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
 |
Ferrari | 26 | ||
| 2 |  |
 |
Red Bull | 20.524 | 20.524 | 18 |
| 3 |  |
 |
Mercedes | 25.593 | 5.069 | 15 |
| 4 | |
|
Mercedes | 28.543 | 2.950 | 12 |
| 5 | |
 |
McLaren | 53.303 | 24.760 | 10 |
| 6 |  |
|
McLaren | 53.737 | 0.434 | 8 |
| 7 |  |
 |
Alpine | 1’01.683 | 7.946 | 6 |
| 8 |  |
 |
Alfa Romeo | 1’08.439 | 6.756 | 4 |
| 9 | |
 |
AlphaTauri | 1’16.221 | 7,782 | 2 |
| 10 |  |
 |
williams | 1’19.382 | 3.161 | 1 |
| see results | ||||||
Formula 1 Australia 2022 race summary
The third round of the Formula 1 World Championship began quite calmly, as everyone respected each other at the start and in the modified first corner, however, the hostilities began when the single-seaters reached the second sector, where we saw how Carlos Sainz lost positions until He ended up on the gravel of the turn 11 run-off, prompting a safety car that regrouped everyone.
One of the most aggressive when the lights went out was Lewis Hamilton , who with great traction overtook Lando Norris and Sergio Pérez before reaching the first left-hander, jumping to podium position.
Ahead, pole position man with a brilliant lap, Charles Leclerc , held on to the lead, withstanding pressure from Max Verstappen , but the Dutchman’s aggressiveness wanted to come out when the green flag waved again on the track at Albert Park on lap 7. His team reminded him on the radio that he could not get parallel with the driver in front, so the Red Bull driver had to settle for remaining in second position, while Fernando Alonso, who started with the harder tyres, he was riding in 10th place.
The grid remained stable, although it was clear how Hamilton lost sight of the leaders as soon as they returned to race pace. Checo Pérez , who became a candidate to move up to third place with the abandonment of Sainz, overtook the seven-time champion thanks to the second DRS zone before reaching turn 3, however, his teammate and Leclerc were already more than 6 seconds away .
The Ferrari driver from Madrid, after the disappointment of being forced to retire, walked with his head down through the paddock, while Sebastian Vettel starred in an exit from the track with no major consequences other than falling to the last place.
The dance of stops and the madness with the safety car begins (lap 12/58)
From lap 12 on, the drivers began to suffer from graining problems in their tires, and it was noticeable in the distance that the championship leader, Leclerc, took Verstappen. The defending world champion said on the radio that he was suffering with his left front wheel, allegedly caused by a brake lockup in the penultimate corner.
In the middle zone, Alonso was chasing Gasly , while Bottas showed the spoiler to Yuki Tsunoda getting overtaking, although the interest remained in the head, because the Maranello team was indicating to its only driver on the track that the plan was go five laps longer on the strategy with the medium compound.
The new turn 11 was wreaking havoc, as Kevin Magnussen was the third to go off at that point, as did his teammate Mick Schumacher a few laps earlier. On lap 18 the strategic moves began, and Red Bull called on Verstappen to put on the hard tyres, taking advantage of a window of clean air to gain some time back from Leclerc.
The Dutchman entered the track just ahead of Gasly and Alonso , who was able to take advantage of the Frenchman’s confusion to overtake the AlphaTauri and climb to 8th position. The other car from Milton Keynes, Pérez’s, was seriously suffering with the medium, so they decided to enter to hold the podium place.
Verstappen gritted his teeth to attempt an undercut on Leclerc, shooting about seven tenths per lap fastest and setting fastest lap after fastest lap. However, at Ferrari they realized this, so they indicated that he should go through the pitlane to put the hard and continue until the end.
On lap 24 everything changed as Sebastian Vettel came to a standstill in the middle of the circuit after losing control of the rear of his AMR22. Race management made the decision to bring out the safety car again and as this meant less time wasted in the garage, some like Russell took advantage of it.
The Briton climbed to 3rd place, ahead of Alonso, who did not stop because he continued with the hard ones and had to be more on the track, Pérez and Hamilton, who got into a nice parallel fight in the modified area of turn 9 -10-11.
Verstappen wanted to repeat the battles of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in Australia (lap 27/58)
On the restart of the race , the defending champion displayed his aggressive mentality, putting Leclerc in trouble, who did not draw the last corner as he should and lost all the traction of the Ferrari. The Monegasque, thanks to a very good top speed, was able to keep the lead, although Verstappen was parallel, with Russell as a luxury spectator while watching Alonso’s attacks in the rear-view mirrors.
The Asturian, with more worn tires, began to lose pace, so he had to see how Pérez and Hamilton overtook him without major problems. However, the two-time champion maintained an advantage of more than a second, which left Magnussen without the possibility of opening the DRS.
At the top of the table, Leclerc took out the hammer to impose his dominance by making several consecutive fastest laps, causing the distance with respect to Verstappen to increase to more than 4 seconds.
Verstappen’s Red Bull can’t hold up in Australia (lap 39/58)
These two were the main protagonists, setting the best times, but on lap 39, the Dutchman’s RB18 said enough was enough and was stopped in the linked turns 1 and 2, causing a virtual safety car and leaving victory on a platter his rival for the world cup.
This period of VSC was taken advantage of by Alonso, who put in a new media game, although he fell to 13th position. From there, he tried to sign a great comeback, but Schumacher’s Haas acted as a wall that prevented the Oviedo from climbing positions.
The one from Alpine managed to overtake the German, but got stuck in a train of cars led by Pierre Gasly, while at the top of the classification, Leclerc asked his team to try to go for the extra point of the fastest lap.
A few laps from the end, Sergio Pérez went off the track, but kept second position, unlike Alonso, who fell down the table until he was overtaken by Guanyu Zhou and the two Haas. At that moment, the Spaniard changed tires again to put on other new media, although he was already last.
With a great management of the race, Leclerc won for the second time in the season and becomes even more leader of the world championship after the retirements of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz.
