Highlights: Australian Grand Prix in Formula 1 2024

1  Carlos SAINZ

2  Charles LECLERC +3.413  

3  Lando NORRIS +6.501

FERNANDO ALONSO HOLDS SIXTH PLACE OVER RUSSELL AND TRIES TO MAINTAIN HIS POSITION IN FRONT OF THE MERCEDES WHICH IS +0.347

1  Carlos SAINZLEADER  2

2  Charles LECLERC +5.248  

3  Lando NORRIS +8.807  

4  Oscar PIASTRI +19.794  

5  Sergio PEREZ +32.588  

6  Fernando ALONSO +48.880  

7  George RUSSELL +49.895  

8  Lance STROLL +60.500  

9  Yuki TSUNODA +64.896  

10  Nico HULKENBERG +68.848  

11  Kevin MAGNUSSEN +71.507  

12  Alexander ALBON +75.440  

13  Daniel RICCIARDO +77.302  

14  Pierre GASLY

15  Valtteri BOTTAS

16  GuanyuZHOU

17  Esteban OCON

18  Lewis HAMILTON--  OUT

19  Max VERSTAPPEN-- OUT

10-SECOND PENALTY FOR PIERRE GASLY FOR CROSSING THE PIT LANE LINE AT THE START OF THE RACE

The stewards are going to be busy - Bottas is in trouble, after a loose wheel nut went flying on his pit stop. Gasly is also being looked at for running over the white line on pit lane exit, which is exactly what he did in qualifying yesterday.

9  Yuki TSUNODA +58.313  

10  Nico HULKENBERG +59.837  

11  Kevin MAGNUSSEN +63.701  

12  Alexander ALBON +64.909

1  Carlos SAINZ

2  Charles LECLERC +5.143  

3  Lando NORRIS +9.875

CARLOS SAINZ PITS AND ACHIEVES A TIME OF 2.6 AND KEEPS HIS LEAD AS RACE LEADER

LANDO NORRIS IS SECOND TO CHARLES LECLERC AND NOW THE MCLAREN IS IN FERRERI'S SANDWICH

1  Carlos SAINZ

2  Lando NORRIS +10.096  

3  Oscar PIASTRI +18.052  

4  Charles LECLERC +27.371  

5  Fernando ALONSO +34.467  

6  George RUSSELL +38.696  

7  Sergio PEREZ +49.469  

8  Lance STROLL +67.917  

9  Pierre GASLY +68.282  

10  Yuki TSUNODA +70.759  

11  Nico HULKENBERG +72.647  

12  Alexander ALBON +75.722  

13  Kevin MAGNUSSEN +76.892  

14  Esteban OCON

15  Daniel RICCIARDO

16  Valtteri BOTTAS

17  GuanyuZHOU

18  Lewis HAMILTON

19 Max Verstappen

MCLAREN

No sign of Norris or Piastri pitting, but Perez does. he swaps to more hard tyres, and comes back out in ninth behind Tsunoda. Right then, what can he do with fresh rubber to rescue Red Bull's race? They look harder on their tyres than Ferrari based on the ones that just came off the Mexican's car.

LECLERC COMES INTO THE PITS AND HAS A TIME OF 2.1 STILL ON HARD TYRES

Fernando Alonso is in DRS on Sergio Perez and is looking to beat him for sixth position.

FERRARI FIGHTS FOR FIRST PLACE. SAINZ IS +4.493 OVER LECLERC

At the moment neither driver has a DRS opportunity over the other. All drivers are over a second ahead of each other

CARLOS SAINZ MAINTAINS HIS LEAD OVER CHARLES LECLERC FOR THE MOMENT.

+1.961 IS THE DIFFERENCE

THE FIGHT FOR THE WIN BELONGS TO FERRARI

1  Carlos SAINZ

2  Charles LECLERC +1.733  

3  Oscar PIASTRI +4.163  

4  Lando NORRIS +6.481  

5  Fernando ALONSO +13.533  

6  Sergio PEREZ +18.275  

7  George RUSSELL +19.152  

8  Lance STROLL +21.935  

9  Yuki TSUNODA +23.612  

10  Alexander ALBON +27.424  

11  Kevin MAGNUSSEN +29.262  

12  Nico HULKENBERG +31.304  

13  Daniel RICCIARDO +34.436  

14  GuanyuZHOU +39.616  

15  Pierre GASLY +41.901  

16  Valtteri BOTTAS +55.128  

17  Esteban OCON +56.110  

18  Lewis HAMILTON             OUT

19  Max VERSTAPPEN            OUT

CHECO PÉREZ ACHIEVES A 2.8 STOP AND RUNS HARD TIRES TO THE FINISH

Tremendous strategic race now.

The drivers who entered the race have an advantage over those who did not. Even though Norris is second, he will lose position, as he did not stop to change tires.

Sainz is still first

After 10 laps, several drivers pitted.

1SAINZ MEDIAS

2NORRIS MEDIAS

3PÉREZ HALFWAYS

4ALONDO HARD

1  Carlos SAINZ

2  Lando NORRIS+2.796  - -

3  Charles LECLERC+3.608  - -

4  Oscar PIASTRI+4.293  - -

5  Sergio PEREZ+8.255  - -

6  Yuki TSUNODA+10.671  - -

7  Fernando ALONSO+11.319  

8  Esteban OCON+15.789  

9  Nico HULKENBERG+18.804  

10  Pierre GASLY+18.860  

11  George RUSSELL+24.872  

12  Lance STROLL+8.925  

13  Valtteri BOTTAS+13.336  

14  Lewis HAMILTON+29.589  

15  Kevin MAGNUSSEN+34.876  

16  Alexander ALBON+36.145  

17  Daniel RICCIARDO+40.935  

18  GuanyuZHOU+43.020  

19  Max VERSTAPPEN OUT

FIRE ON VERSTAPPEN'S RIGHT REAR TIRE AND THE TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPION RETIRES!

MOMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THERE IS A RACE!

¡MAMÁAAAAAAAAAAA HAY CARRERA!

 

VERSTAPPEN PITTED AND THE RACE IS OVER FOR HIM!

THE WORLD CHAMPION RETIRES AND MAKES WORLD NEWS

FIGHT FOR FIRST PLACE

1 Carlos SAINZ 

2 Max VERSTAPPEN +0.680

CARLOS SAINZ BEATS VERSTAPPEN FOR THE LEAD!!!!!

VERSTAPPEN GOES VERY WELL, HOLDS FIRST PLACE, CARLOS SAINZ IS SECOND, NORRIS WINS THIRD FROM LECLERC

The Australian Grand Prix the third session of the season starts!!!!

Preliminary lap is underway and the race in Australia will be underway shortly.

The pole winner has won just three of the last ten Australian GPs, while 16 of the 25 races in Melbourne have been won from the front row.

David Coulthard's last F1 victory came at this circuit, with his starting position of 11th, the lowest of any winner at Albert Park.

As we can see in the following graph, taking Max Verstappen's fastest lap as a reference, no driver putting together his best sectors would be able to beat him. It is striking how close Carlos Sainz could be, as we have already mentioned.

One of Fernando Alonso's trump cards for the race is his slight improvement in tire degradation over previous races. The Aston Martin is not much superior to the cars that will start in front of him, so the strategy will be key for the development of the Grand Prix.

In addition, it is very striking the big difference that we can see between teammates at the bottom of the table. The Alpines are separated by four tenths, the Sauber by five, the Haas by three or the Racing Bulls by seven tenths. 

"It’s been a tough couple of weeks, a lot of days in bed waiting for this moment to see if I could be here today.

“To make it to this weekend and then obviously to put it on the front row after leading through qualifying I was almost not believing it, especially after how tough it’s been.

"I’m not going to lie I’m not in my most comfortable state when I’m driving out there, but I can get it done. And as far as I can get it done without pain… obviously a lot of discomfort and weird feelings, but no pain, so it allows me to push flat-out.”

The two-time world champion won the pole position and thanks to this he will be first at the start of the race. After being the best in qualifying he said the following:

"Today was a bit unexpected, but I'm very happy with Q3. So far it has been a complicated weekend, (Ferrari) seems very fast in the long runs, so tomorrow will be exciting".

20°C

Chance of precipitation: 0%.

Humidity: 56%.

Wind: 23 km/h

Welcome back to the live and real-time coverage of the Australian Grand Prix, corresponding to the 2024 Formula 1 season. 

The hour before the race and then the session begins. You will be joined by Esteban Monsalve.