The Formula 1 season continues and we move to the Melbourne Circuit for the 2024 Australian Grand Prix and these are the things you need to know before the race.
What is the Circuit?
The Albert Park Circuit will be where the third race of the 2023 Formula 1 season will take place, this will be the 85th edition in which this Grand Prix will take place. The circuit has a length of 5.2 kilometers, in addition to 14 curves and 3 DRS zones, it was inaugurated in 1996. For this race, 58 laps will be carried out to define the winner of the Australian Grand Prix.
The last winner of the Australian Grand Prix was Max Verstappen with a time of 2:32:38.371 last season, the Redbull driver was accompanied by Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes Benz and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, on the podium.
How is the fight for first place going?
The season continues its course and with a couple of Grand Prix, Max Verstappen leads the drivers' table closely followed by Sergio “Checo” Pérez who has finished second on both occasions. The Red Bull team is the recent constructors' champion and made 1-2 with Max and Checo last season, so the objective is to continue dominating the races. As for the Mexican, he is closely followed by Charles Leclerc in third place, the Monegasque will put all his pressure on Checo Pérez to try to score important points in the fight for second place.
What happened between races?
One of the most important news of this period was what happened in the previous practices, when in the first of these, Alex Albón damaged the front wing of his car. The decision made by the Williams Racing team was to use the parts from Logan Sargeant's car to repair Alex Albón's car and thus seek to score some points, since the British driver has the best chance of scoring points. Logan Sargeant will miss the Australian Grand Prix and the race will have one less competitor.
Another very interesting topic was the closeness between Ferrari and Red Bull during practice times, which excites Formula 1 fans to see a very even race.
Likewise, we have the return of Carlos Sainz Jr. with Ferrari, after missing the previous Grand Prix due to discomfort caused by appendicitis, the Spaniard was replaced by Oliver Bearman in Saudi Arabia and showed good qualities in the race. However, the Spaniard is back and stood out in practice, achieving a couple of podium positions.
What time does the race start?
The Australian Grand Prix will take place on Saturday, March 23 with the following times in different countries:
- 22 hours in Mexico
- 00 hours in the United States (ET)
- 23 hours in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru
- 00 hours in Bolivia and Venezuela
- 01 hours in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.
- 05 hours in Spain
Favorite?
The favorite for this race is Max Verstappen, who will start in first place with a comfortable position and defending his position to score the most points, in addition to wanting to continue extending the streak of 9 consecutive victories. But he will have to closely follow Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, who have shown improvements race by race, and Fernando Alonso who will push hard from the start to take first place. We also cannot rule out Sergio “Checo” Pérez and Charles Leclerc who are fighting for second place in the drivers' world championship.
This is how the entire starting grid was defined for tomorrow at the Melbourne Circuit in Australia:
During qualifying, one of the issues that caused the most discomfort was the sun; many pilots requested that their visor be changed to a darker one in order to perform better. Daniel Ricciardo, Niko Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly and Guanyu Zhou were left out in Q1. Added to these, Logan Sargeant who did not see action over the weekend.
During this session, all the drivers used soft tires and, likewise, they complained about constant understeer throughout the track. After Q2, Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon, Valteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton were eliminated.
By the end, Red Bull was dominant again with Max Verstappen showing his best side and taking Pole Position, along with “Checo” Pérez who will start in third. Carlos Sainz surprised everyone by getting between both Red Bull drivers and placing himself in second place, while Charles Leclerc finished fifth. Lando Norris closed the top 5, placing fourth.
However, the FIA penalized Sergio Pérez for having hindered Niko Hulkenberg on his qualifying lap, in an error between the Mexican and his race engineer for not being cautious and reacting late. “Checo” will start sixth, allowing Oscar Piastri to get into the top 5 and the Mexican to serve his 3-place suspension.
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