Sainz Jr. won his first grand prix since surgery. Verstappen and Hamilton did not finish the race
The third race of the new Formula 1 season, the Australian Grand Prix, ended in an unexpected triumph for Ferrari.
Already after the third lap was forced to withdraw from the distance leader of the overall standings, Max Verstappen. The Red Bull racer began technical problems and there was a fire bolide. Following him prematurely ended the race for himself another world champion, Lewis Hamilton: in the car of the British racer failed power plant on the car, so from also prematurely ended the grand prix.
Without two favourites, the best result was shown by Ferrari pilots: Carlos Sainz confidently won the grand prix, and his teammate, Charles Leclerc, became second. Also on the podium finished Lando Norris from McLaren.
It is worth recalling that Sainz missed the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago. The racer aggravated appendicitis, which forced him to lie on the operating table. Thus, in the first serious start after the grand prix, the Spaniard came to the finish line first.
The race actually ended prematurely due to Russell's hard crash: the Mercedes driver crashed into the wall on the penultimate lap. Yellow flags covered the remaining distance.
The next F1 start is in a fortnight's time: the drivers will determine the fastest in F1 at the Suzuka circuit for the Japanese Grand Prix.
Australian Grand Prix 2024
- Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari)
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Lando Norris (McLaren)
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
- Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
- Yuki Tsunoda (RB)
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)*
- Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
- Alexander Albon (Williams)
- Daniel Riccardo (RB)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpin)
- Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)
- Guangyu Zhou (Sauber)
- Esteban Ocon (Alpin)
Did not finish
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - technical issues
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - technical issues
- George Russell (Mercedes) - crash
*Fernando Alonso was penalized for 20 seconds and lost two positions. Details at the link
Ileana Sanchez
Dailysports's expert
