Lucky break for George Russell
The lack of Mercedes-AMG pace continued in Australia, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finding themselves powerless once again to take the fight to Ferrari and Red Bull.
Hamilton made a great start from fifth on the grid to run third but had no way of fending off Sergio Perez in the Red Bull. He actually jumped the Mexican at the pitstops, only for ‘Checo’ to pass him comfortably and on the outside. That must have been dispiriting.
What made it worse was the latest in a series of unlucky safety car breaks for the seven-time champion. Vettel dropping his Aston couldn’t have come at a worse time for Hamilton because it allowed team-mate George Russell to make his pitstop and jump the other Silver Arrows in the order. That made the difference for the final podium position, Russell taking it ahead of a disgruntled Hamilton. The result leaves Russell a surprise second in the points behind Leclerc, even if it’s not representative of form for the bouncing Mercedes cars.
Bad day for Sainz, Vettel and Alonso
Carlos Sainz Jr qualified only ninth and then spun out on lap two – never great, especially when your team-mate is winning; Vettel looked completely out of sorts during his first F1 race this season following a bout of Covid; and Fernando Alonso was left “speechless” in the wake of a race that promised so much and delivered a big fat zero.
Unlucky to be pitched into an accident in qualifying by a technical failure, the Alpine driver had been set for a place on the first two rows of the grid. Instead, from 10th he ran long on the hard tyre and rose up the order, only for Vettel’s safety car to hurt his strategy. When he finally did stop for medium-compound Pirellis, he routed them trying to make up lost ground, pitted for more and finished last.
Good day for Williams
In contrast, Alex Albon and Williams played a novel game that delivered a much-needed world championship point. The Thai driver ran almost the entire 58-lap distance on one set of hard tyres, only stopping on the penultimate tour to secure 10th place.