24/03/2024
NEWS STORY
The third round of the season ended with a one-two finish for Ferrari, Carlos Sainz claiming his first win since Singapore last September, while Charles Leclerc, thanks in part to the extra point for the race fastest lap, is second in the Drivers' classification on 47 points.
Ahead of him on 51 is Max Verstappen, despite the fact the Dutchman posted his first retirement after 44 consecutive points finishes, the last non-finish for him being here in Melbourne back in 2022. Third in the standings with 46 points is his team-mate Sergio Perez, fifth today, followed by today's winner on 40.
It was the Spaniard's third win and his twentieth podium finish, while for his Ferrari team it was win 244 and its 86th one-two. It was also the second for the Sainz-Leclerc pairing, the first coming at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix when they took the chequered flag in the reverse order.
All three compounds chosen by Pirelli for this Grand Prix were in use on the starting grid: 14 drivers went for the Medium, three (Hamilton, Ricciardo and Zhou) opted for the Soft and two (Alonso and Hulkenberg) the Hard. As predicted the most popular strategy was the two-stop, running Medium-Hard-Hard. Ocon was the only driver to make three stops but that was forced on him by the need to make a very early first pit stop to remove a visor tear-off from a brake duct.
After making the briefest of appearances in FP3, only for scrubbing-in purposes, the C3 was the most popular choice today, used for almost 80% of the race distance by the 19 drivers on track with this compound. Graining continued to be an important factor and, as expected, this phenomenon did not diminish even though it was much hotter than in previous days and on a track that got increasingly rubbered-in. Significant graining was also evident on the Hard which was never used on the first two days, but nevertheless it was manageable. In terms of stint length, George Russell's second stint ran to 37 laps on the C3 and Fernando Alonso did 24 on the C4.
Mario Isola: "First of all, congratulations to Carlos Sainz and everyone at Ferrari for this one-two which once again demonstrated that in such a competitive sport, where technology is pushed to the limit, one can never take anything for granted. I've got nothing against Max and Red Bull, but clearly a new name on the list of winners, after two years of almost total dominance is good for Formula 1 as a whole, as is the fact that the top four drivers in the classification are covered by just eleven points.
"As for the race, it showed that our decision to bring a trio of softer compounds here compared to last year was the right one. Today's race was busier compared to recent years, with tyre management making the difference. For example, one of the keys to Sainz's success was the ability to lengthen the first stint on the Mediums, which then gave him the edge over his closest pursuers, as the two sets of Hards he used in the second and third stints were fresher. Yes, Carlos was able to drive a good part of his first stint with a clear track ahead of him, while his team-mate for example was in traffic, sandwiched between the two McLarens. All the same, Leclerc managed to overtake Norris precisely because he had stopped first and was able to better exploit the performance of new Hard tyres in the opening laps of his second stint.
"In general, graining was the leitmotif of the weekend, but it was not problematic in terms of tyre performance and in the end, those who did the better job of managing them had the upper hand."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.