The British driver George Russell (Mercedes) achieved victory this Sunday in the Australian Grand Prix, the first round of the Formula 1 World Championship, and led the Mercedes double, with the Ferraris behind, while the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Aston), as he ventured, had to abandon, and Carlos Sainz (Williams) was fifteenth.
In an exciting race at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Russell recovered from a good start by the Ferraris, with the Monegasque Charles Leclerc placing first, and imposed the good tire management of the ‘silver arrows’ to claim the first victory of the course ahead of his teammate, the Italian Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes).
Behind, Leclerc also got on the podiumwhile the British Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) was fourth and the current champion, the also British Lando Norris (McLaren), closed the ‘Top 5’. The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who started from the back of the grid, climbed to the final sixth position, and the British Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Arvid Lindblad (RB), the Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) and the Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpine) completed the top ten positions.
Carlos Sainz was able to complete the 58 laps of the race but finished outside the points zonefifteenth, despite making a good start that placed him twelfth. Although things went worse for the other Spaniard in the running: Fernando Alonso.
Alonso already warned before the race
He already announced it on Saturday: if there was even the slightest problem with the telemetry, he would give up to be able to be in China with the only battery his AMR26 has. He started fifteenth, two positions better than in classification after the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) suffered an accident before the race and the German Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) had a breakdown, and placed tenth after the traffic lights went out.
However, their adventure was short-lived. He entered the garages on lap 12 taking advantage of a ‘virtual safety car’ caused by the abandonment of the Frenchman Isack Hadjar (RB), but only two laps later, on lap 14, he was alerted by radio that something was wrong and returned to the pits. Its mechanics tried to solve the problem, but they couldn’t find the key.
When it seemed like I was going to give up, returned to the track with ten laps lost to use the race as a test, before retiring permanently. In China, he already warned that it will be the same story.
There was much more action for the victory, after Leclerc took the lead at the start, with Hamilton placing third just behind pole sitter Russell. Hadjar’s abandonment in the twelfth lap forced the teams to bet on strategy; Mercedes immediately entered the pits, while the ‘Scuderia’ cars remained on the track until the 26th lap, trying to come to a stop.
Las ‘silver arrows’ then took the leadand they would not abandon it until the end thanks to the key management of its tires and, above all, the superiority of its power unit. The Ferraris underestimated the durability of the Mercedes’ hard rubber and finally found themselves overtaken, settling for third and fourth places.
