The 2019 Australian Grand Prix results are in, and it was a race surprisingly dominated by Valtteri Bottas, and we have our alternative review with our Good, Bad and Ugly of the race.
We feature a few of our thoughts, a review crammed into a hundred words or less, plus the all important Good, Bad and Ugly.
Follow to the end to see the season tally so far to see who the ultimate Good and Bad are.
2019 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX IN 100 WORDS OR LESS
Bottas burned Lewis Hamilton off the start, as further back Daniel Riccardo found something off track that destroyed his front wing and race within a few 100 metres of leaving his grid slot.
Bottas as never headed as he cleared away form Lewis Hamilton is a style usually seen from the #44 not the #77.
Further back Max Verstappen showed a little glimpse of Honda gold, and he burned off Sebastian Vettel who was off the pace and would have been behind new team-mate Charles Leclerc if not for team orders.
Even further back the midfield battled and some usual suspects ended up best of the rest, and the new aero rules were tested and little surprise that overtaking wasn’t much easier.
Perhaps it was Albert Park, or that the teams have already caught up with any aero loss that could have led to more passing.
2019 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX RESULTS – MOMENT OF THE RACE
Although expectations were reasonably low, Daniel Ricciardo destroying his front wing removed some of the buzz for Australian fans, starved of home-grown success.
2019 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX RESULTS – RACE RATING
We gave the potential excitement rating out of 50 in our preview of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, so why not have another tally of 50 to rate the race that was.
SURPRISE – 9/10
Ferrari not being at the front was surprise enough, but Valtteri Bottas dominating even more so.
SUSPENSE – 3/10
Apart from the start and the exchanging of Fastest laps at the end, there wasn’t a great deal to keep one on the edge of their seat.
RACING – 4/10
Not a great deal to speak of, as the new aero rules don’t improve the racing that much. A few overtaking moves were glimpsed, but that is Albert Park.
SIGNIFICANT EVENT – 7/10
Ferrari’s team orders at the first race gives an insight on their thoughts early in the season, and shows Charles Leclerc what he will need to do to avoid them for the rest of the season – get head and stay ahead of Vettel. Bottas beating Hamilton is also significant enough.
SEASON DEFINING – 7/10
The pace of Mercedes has set the ne benchmark for others to panic about. Max Verstappen’s weekend for Red Bull looks like they might be closer to the front too.
TOTAL RACE RATING 30/50
Enough excitement due to being the first race of the 2019 F1 season, but hopefully the action gets a little better.
2019 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX RESULTS – GOOD, BAD, or UGLY
Who was king of the road,? Who was the villain? Who stunk up the place? Who outperformed expectations? Or was just plain unlucky? We split up the best of the best and worst of the worst with Good, Bad and Ugly of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
THE GOOD
VALTTERI BOTTAS (Best of the Good)
A super first lap in Q3 sent a shiver down the spine of Ferrari, and possibly his team mate who had just enough in reserve to take pole.
But Pole Position meant bugger all once again for Lewis Hamilton as he was well beaten off the line by Bottas, who was never spied again. The Finn simply drove off into the distance in a manner that we would have expected from a Hamilton or Vettel in the past.
A drive of quality that was unexpected or at least overlooked going into the 2019 season opener with all the hype of new drivers and combos.
MAX VERSTAPPEN
Not a bad weekend for Max Verstappen. He has a Red Bull with a Honda engine that looks fast and reliable, his new team mate applied no pressure at all, and he earned himself a podium at the end of it all. He behaved himself all weekend
It definitely looks like more to come too.
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN
The first best of the rest winner for 2019 with his sixth place finish, making up for the bag of lost points from last season when his team forgot to bolt his wheels properly. Unlike this season, when only Grosjean got the old sugar-me-do with his wheels. Magnussen was also the last car not lapped.
NICO HULKENBERG
Did all he could, and what he usually does. Outqualified new team mate Daniel Ricciardo at the first attempt, and produced a usual barely noticeable good drive to 7th from 11th.
Ricciardo may have it more difficult than we originally thought in 2019.
LANCE STROLL
Zoomed up from 16th to 13th at the start of the race, and ended up with a couple of points for his trouble by race end. Ahead of the highly rated Sergio Perez which does a little bit to try to enhance his reputation from a pay driver who owes his F1 existence to his father.
LANDO NORRIS
Although his race may not have panned out how he would have liked, his qualifying performance was more than enough to make the Good list for the 2019 Australian Grand Pix. His 12th place was nothing to sneeze at, and there appears to be plenty more to come from the driver who had to be the rookie of the weekend.
GEORGE RUSSELL
The Williams might be the ultimate dud machine in the 2019 Formula One season, but at least George Russel showed some signs on this Grand Prix debut.
Given that the Williams will likely never be fighting, the best Russell can do is win the qualifying battle with team mate, and finish ahead of him in the race.
Both boxes ticked so far.
THE BAD
DANIEL RICCIARDO
Australians appear cursed at the Australian Grand Prix, and Daniel Ricciardo produced another stunning example of it in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
Expectations were set low but not too low with his move to Renault, but a top ten job in qualifying seemed not too lofty a goal. So when he missed Q3, and was outqualified by his team mate Nico Hulkenberg it was disappointing but not the end of the world. He’d come good in the race surely.
Sadly his race was effectively over after a few hundred metres when he was quite unlucky to find a service road which rip the front wing from his car, and with it went his chances of doing anything in the race.
Eventually a DNF put an end to his day, possibly a mercy given he never seemed likely to grab a point after the start.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Came into the weekend with the F1 world presuming he would land his Ferrari on pole and go from there.
Reality on Saturday came as the Mercedes team flexed their muscles to show Winter Testing meant nothing.
Vettel’s raceday was even worse as the Ferrari was never quite on the pace of the Mercedes, and he was easily dispatched by Max Verstappen towards the end and needed team orders to stay ahead of Charles Leclerc.
CARLOS SAINZ JNR
Kicked out of qualifying in Q1, ending in 18th and 0.3 seconds behind his rookie team mate, leaving him just in front of the Williams cars. Lando Norris went on to make Q3 too.
Suffered a fiery exit in the race on lap 9 to be the 2019’s F1 season’s first retirement.
PIERRE GASLY
Was certainly the most disappointing of the newcomers to the big three teams after getting the promotion to Red Bull from Toro Rosso in the off season.
Being eliminated in Q1 was underwhelming at a minimum, especially hen his team mate was able to split the Ferraris.
Then the Frenchman was unable to get past the Toro Rosso of Kvyat in the closing stages of the races, missing out on a Championship point in the process by finishing 11th.
Will need to improve on that race given the brutal driver treatment of Red Bull at times.
ROBERT KUBICA
Has done an incredible job just to get back to Formula 1, but may regret that at sometime during the season if all the races are going to go like Australia.
It is giving the impression that it will.
Williams are the new Minardi, at the back of the grid with no hope of getting any further ahead this season. And Kubica is being outqualified by the rookie team-mate.
He also finished behind George Russell, and was lapped three times before the race ended.
THE UGLY
CHARLES LECLERC
Got a decent taste of his life at Ferrari ahead at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
Outqualified by Vettel in Q3, after a decent showing of beating him in Q1 and Q2.
Had a decent race, which included running wide at turn 1, but has been nominated for the ugly category for his late charge up to the back of Vettel and subsequent falling back from the German. It appears as if the team had intervened, and for the new Ferrari driver that must be concerning if they are playing the team order game this early into the season.
2019 F1 SEASON ULTIMATE GOOD, BAD and UGLY
Points can be meaningless, so we have devised our little point scoring activity that rewards everything, not just race wins.
There’s no point in compiling of all the F1 data we can find, without working out a grand total. So here it is.
| Driver | Total | GBU | Win / Podium | Fastest Laps | Pole/Front Row | Outqual | Outraced | Avoidable Accident | Start | Best Rest |
| Valtteri Bottas | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Lewis Hamilton | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Max Verstappen | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Kevin Magnussen | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Nico Hulkenberg | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Lando Norris | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| George Russell | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Kimi Raikkonen | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Lance Stroll | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Romain Grosjean | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Sebastian Vettel | 1 | -1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Daniil Kvyat | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Sergio Perez | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Alexander Albon | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Antonio Giovinazzi | 0 | |||||||||
| Carlos Sainz Jnr | 0 | -1 | 1 | |||||||
| Charles Leclerc | -1 | -1 | ||||||||
| Pierre Gasly | -1 | -1 | ||||||||
| Robert Kubica | -1 | -1 | ||||||||
| Daniel Ricciardo | -3 | -2 | -1 |
POINT SCORING
1 point for featuring in Good, -1 for featuring in Bad or Ugly. A bonus point for the very best and worst.
1 point for Outqualifying and Finishing ahead of team mate.
3 points for a Race win, 2 for Podium, 1 for Fastest Lap.
1 points for most overtakes on the first lap.
2 points for Pole Position, 1 for a Front Row start.
1 point for Best of the Rest in Qualifying and Race.
-1 for an avoidable accident.
