Can this be true, a non Red Bull win. Do our eyes deceive us? Nope, Carlos Sainz leads home a 1-2 for Ferrari as Max Verstappen retires early with car troubles. Talking of the old 1-2, here is our 2024 Australian F1 Grand Prix Result Summary which covers both races and anything else of interest.
This 2024 Australian Grand Prix Result, Lap by Lap, Review & Summary gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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2024 Australian GP Preview
2024 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix Summary and Review
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2024 Australian F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Max Verstappen took pole position again, but the Ferraris seem closer, and McLaren closing the gap to them. Sergio Perez qualified third but was dropped three places for blocking Nico Hulkenberg early in qualifying. Mercedes don’t look great, and Lewis Hamilton missed Q3. Worse than that is Daniel Ricciardo, who is under pressure already in the RB, and ended up second last on the grid. Which became last when Zhou started from pitlane. A pre-race shot of Liam Lawson shows him as impressed with RB as Helmut Marko was with Ricciardo.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER SAI NOR LEC PIA PER RUS TSU STR ALO
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away well enough, as does Carlos Sainz and they remain 1-2 through the first corner. Despite the excitable shouting of David Croft there’s no misbehaving into and out of the first corner. Further around the lap George Russell is in front of Sergio Perez. A few minor changes in the midfield, but it was a first lap of as little action as we’ve ever seen in Melbourne. That will probably change.
ORDER – VER SAI NOR LEC PIA RUS PER STR TSU HAM
Lap 2 – Carlos Sainz takes the lead!!!!! Just seconds after declaring the race is over with Max Verstappen already in front of the race on lap two the Ferrari driver nails the Red Bull into the fast sweepers down the back straight. Word on the street is Max Verstappen made a mistake, which seems unlikely.
Lap 4 – Max Verstappen is on the radio is saying his car is loose. Maybe it’s not used to not being in front. Or maybe that feint plume of smoke coming from the back left wheel has something to do with it. And it is smoking big time as he comes down the back straight and he is slowing!!!! The Red Bull is broken, it does happen. Verstappen enters the pit lane with a burst of brake dust, and his wheel also is on fire. Needless to say his race is over, as is his 43 race run of no retirement.
ORDER – SAI NOR LEC PIA RUS PER STR TSU HAM ALO
Lap 6 – Someone is not used to losing…..Max Verstappen looks furious as coverage shows him in the pits. He wouldn’t have had much fun driving F1 in the 1980’s where every second race your car broke. I’m sure Christian Horner will get the blame, and maybe he should. No doubt Netflix will be there lapping it up.
Lap 8 – The first pit stops for tyres have begun with Lewis Hamilton’s slightly more interesting than Kevin Magnussen’s. George Russell pits a lap later.
Lap 9 – Nice little battle forming between Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri for 2nd to 4th. A lap later Leclerc and Piastri pit for new tyres and drop to 7th/8th. Meanwhile Carlos “Utah” Sainz is a comfortable 2.6 second up the road.
Lap 11 – The pitstops have allowed a few little moments of sunshine for midfield and below battlers, with Pierre Gasly hassling Nico Hulkenberg for 5th place. This becomes a few places lower as Leclerc and Piastri come barging through.
Lap 15 – Lando Norris and Sergio Perez pit. Perez comes out alongside Lewis Hamilton which gives us a little taste of excitement as they race for a few straights.
Lap 17 – Carlos Sainz pits from the lead and comes out just behind Fernando Alonso. Meanwhile in another part of town, Lewis Hamilton’s car is shown to be cruising. Not as in under control like his Mercedes dominating days but going slow like the car is about to sh!t itself. Which it does officially as Hamilton retires his car. This temporarily brings out the Safety Car which kept Alonso behind Utah Sainz for a bit longer until Alonso pits.
Lap 20 – Sergio Perez is doing his usual thing on a Sunday, and that’s put in one of those good drives through the field after making a mistake in qualifying. It takes a couple of laps but he flies past George Russell with ease. George Russell remarks on the radio that the Red Bull is like a rocket ship. Which is true as Max Verstappen’s went up in smoke like a few rocket launches have done in recent years.
ORDER – SAI LEC PIA NOR ALO PER RUS STR TSU ALB
Lap 29 – The McLaren drivers swap positions as Oscar Piastri hands over third to Lando Norris, whose job now is to harass Ferraris. There’s a win up for grabs for a change, so progress will be interesting. Although Leclerc is just under three seconds up the road and Sainz another seven. A lap or two later and Norris is nearly three seconds ahead of Piastri, so decision is justified.
ORDER – SAI LEC NOR PIA PER ALO RUS STR TSU HUL
Lap 34 – Lando Norris under 1.5 seconds behind Leclerc who has just complained about tyres. And then the Ferrari pits and Piastri didn’t, so a little mix up of strategy works for the neutral who doesn’t care who wins now Max Verstappen is out. Not that we don’t like Verstappen, just a different winner would be good.
Lap 36 – Sergio Perez pits from 5th. He drops to 8th. Which really isn’t that exciting.
Lap 38 – Cameras showing a Kick Sauber pit stop, which means on track action must be low. It does show some kind of nuts or similar rolling away after the stop. Hopefully not the wheel nut. By the way, the Valtteri Bottas car share ads on TV/Internet are well worth a look.
Lap 40 – Oscar Piastri pits, as does Lando Norris a lap later. Piastri puts a good move on Alonso a few laps later. Piastri is quality.
Lap 42 – Carlos Sainz pits from the lead, and this should be the final pit stops for the important people. He returns to the track with plenty of leg room to second placed Leclerc.
ORDER – SAI LEC NOR PIA RUS PER ALO STR TSU HUL
Lap 48 – Looking for things to write about with ten laps to go. Carlos Sainz is over five seconds in front of Leclerc in second and another four back to Norris. Some other notables are Yuki Tsunoda in 9th, Haas drivers 10th and 11th, and Daniel Ricciardo 13th.
Lap 50 – The final semi-important battle of the race appears to be coming from Alonso-Russell where the two are separated by a second.
Lap 55 – Goerge Russell continues to harass Fernando Alonso but Alonso is too crafty. Wondering if George Russell will somehow choke and bin his Mercedes. The answer is yes.
FINAL LAP – As the cars prepare to soak up the glory, coverage switches to a Mercedes across the track and on its side. It’s George Russell who has lost it big time and the car flips on its side at slow speed after getting tangled up with the broken wheel and tethers. This brings out the Virtual Safety Car, which allows Carlos Sainz to cruise to victory for Ferrari ahead of his team mate. A sensational result for Ferrari and neutral fans around the world.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – SAI LEC NOR PIA PER ALO STR TSU HUL MAG
Note: Fernando Alonso was handed a 20 second penalty well after the race for dangerous driving causing George Russell’s accident.
FINAL ORDER (Final) – SAI LEC NOR PIA PER STR TSU ALO HUL MAG
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – CARLOS SAINZ
Missed the last race because of his appendix, and watched on as an 18 year old did a super sub job. So a win in Australia is big news for him and F1 fans in general. He did it easy too, staying out in front without trouble after he overtook Verstappen on lap 2.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
FERRARI – A 1-2 and decent job in qualifying means not only best of the rest is available, but maybe even challenging Red Bull.
LANDO NORRIS – Another very solid weekend for Norris who started third and finished third.
OSCAR PIASTRI– A fourth place finish in his home race equals the record of Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo, and was the maximum he could enjoy. The no-fuss way he let Norris through without complaint will come back to his advantage later in the season and shows a maturity of a driver who is prepared to wait.
YUKI TSUNODA– Stood up against his team mate this weekend. Made it into Q3 while team mate Ricciardo spent most of his Saturday and Sunday towards the bottom of the grid.
HAAS – Double points finish, all the better for being at the track where Gunther Steiner is there doing interviews, including the winner’s wrap up.
THE GRAPE-EST – LOGAN SARGEANT
It a weekend of many grape weekends, it’s hard to go past the only driver not to get to experience a whole weekend. The American, who we routinely cane for being below average was pretty hard done by when his team took his car off him for Saturday and Sunday after teammate Alex Albon rubbished his in Free Practice. Nice to know what the team think of you then.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Was given a pre-race serving from Helmut Marko that he hasn’t been fast enough, and next to no chance of that Red Bull drive. He responded with a 18th on the grid (after being docked a time good enough to make Q2). In the process was outqualified by his team mate who then went on to score Championship points, while he was at or towards the back of the field for most of Sunday.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – A car failure on lap three after already having been passed for the lead. Yeah, safe to say a bad weekend for someone who usually wins everything. It’s just a temporary handicap to allow F1 fans to enjoy more of the season, so Verstappen will only win the Championship with three races to go not five.
SERGIO PEREZ – A rare car failure for his teammate left first place and beyond well open for the number two Red Bull driver to have a great result. But Perez turned third on the grid to sixth in qualifying due to a penalty, then finished 5th. Which isn’t bad, in anything other than that Red Bull. Although he looked quite quick in the early-mid stages of the race with some overtakes, he fell back into obscurity.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Ruined a good weekend of beating Lewis Hamilton with an amateurish mistake on the second last lap. Ended up on his side, as his crashed Mercedes had its semi-detached car wheels underneath it.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Off the pace for most of the weekend. Missed Q3 and was lower top ten for a lot of the race. Car eventually packed it in as a small mercy. Think we saw a comment from somewhere that it is his worst start to the season. Probably right.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
ON TRACK ACTION – 7 / 10
Enough action throughout most of the race to keep you involved, although the first corner was more boring than usual with everyone behaving.
ANY SURPRISES? – 5 / 5
A car failure for Red Bull and it is Max Verstappen. Yeah, would only get more surprising if Daniel Ricciardo won.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
Again a car failure for Max Verstappen is a big deal. And for F1 fans in general it gives hopes that the Red Bull isn’t going to stroll (not that one) away with the championship/s in 2024.
ENDING 6 / 10
The George Russell v Fernando Alonso battle was interesting enough but probably only worth a 4/10, until on the last lap where Russell binned his car and ended up on side.
OVERALL RATING 23 / 30
Good race for one without rain, and the new Ferrari one-two gives hope for the rest of the season.
2024 F1 Season Power Rankings
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
Why not check the latest race ratings – 2024 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix Ratings
Or check out our 2023 Season Driver Rankings and Stats
