Round 22/58 Verstappen passes Alonso, Ricciardo comes out of the pit and almost hits Albon, Stroll chooses his moment to overtake him and they are both behind McLarens, Norris ninth and Ricciardo tenth. 1 minute ago 06:37 Round 21/58 Mercedes must have worked hard from Jeddah, and Pereth and Norris come in. Hamilton is 17,821 seconds behind Leclerc and about a couple ahead of Russell. Verstappen has just set the fastest lap time and is up to fifth, 0.8 seconds behind Ricciardo … who is just pitting. 4 meters ago 06: 35 Round 20/58 Leclerc is ahead with 16,538 d., But Hamilton is now 0.2 seconds behind Pereth, who is really having a hard time. Red Bull is fighting for traction and Mercedes will be fine with things here – the P1 will probably be gone, but more and more, the P2 seems to be playing! 5 minutes ago 06:34 Round 19/58 Verstappen and Red Bull know they have to do something, so he comes in seventh – no bad, he goes in and out of the 19s – and Leclerc is now ahead with 15,789s. Before 6 meters06: 33 Round 18/58 Mercedes could be “a better racing car than Red Bull”, believes David Croft, not a statement he expected to make. Perez, in third place, is ahead of Hamilton by about 1.8 seconds, and does not increase the difference – although I’m not sure he is in danger of passing. Before 7 meters06: 31 Round 17/58 Magnussen has a hack on Chunoda and almost plows his back, leaves a guarantee and loses a place to Zhou. he is now 14th. If Verstappen throws a pit, he will probably be 12th, behind Bottas, so he stays there for now. Before 9μ06: 30 Round 16/58 Bottas and Tsunoda fight from the beginning and Bottas finally passes. he is now 11th. Leclerc is now 7,849 seconds ahead. 10 minutes ago 06:29 Round 15/58 If Hamilton slows down, he could let Russell take the DRS to get away from the McLarens back, our commentators note. e, this seems unlikely as he moves away from his teammate. 11 minutes ago 06:28 Round 14/58 Hamilton found a little extra rhythm. holds Russell quite easily now. Ahead, Leclerc continues to build on its lead – it’s 6,229 seconds now – and Perez is another four seconds behind. 13 minutes ago 06:26 Round 13/58 Ricciardo is close to Norris, about 0.6 seconds behind, and one second behind Russell and another behind Hamilton. The Leclerc lead is up to 5,451 seconds and Verstappen – or Red Bull – has to make a call. 14 minutes ago 06:24 Round 12/58 The left front of the Verstappen is in turmoil, the composite tears and the Leclerc is now 4.3 seconds ahead. This can be definitive. 1 Leclerc 2 Ferstappen 3 Peres 4 Hamilton 5 Russell 6 Norris 7 Ricciardo 8 Ocon 9 Gas 10 Alonso 16 minutes ago 06:23 Round 11/58 Vettel leaves the track and now sits last. Russell seems to have more pace than Hamilton, so Mercedes allows him to pass, so that the fight between them does not help the two McLaren sitting behind? 17 minutes ago 06:21 Round 10/58 Perez takes DRS in the third turn and takes Hamilton inside! This was his first proper visit, which tells us a lot about where Mercedes is – if we did not already know – but the difference from Verstappen is four seconds. 18 minutes ago 06:20 Round 9/58 Pereth takes Hamilton’s slip and if he intends to win here, he must make it before Leclerc and Ferstappen leave him. misses a second round here. Meanwhile, Leclerc extends his lead to 1,451, while Hamilton loses time back to third place, trying to restrain his man. 20 meters ago 06:18 Round 8/58 Verstappen looks faster than Leclerc while, at the back, Perez worries Hamilton who is about 0.7 seconds ahead of him. He seems to have more rhythm, but he has no more mind and Hamilton is keeping him away for now. The lead of the Leclerc decreases to 0.878 seconds and after one more lap we will have DRS back – it is forbidden for both of them after the exit of the safety car. before 22 p.m. 06:17 Round 7/58 Verstappen is not able to do his own thing, reaching the same level as Leclerc to bring him before the start – the rules have changed this season, so he will have to stay behind. The safety car leaves, Leclerc becomes the virtual safety car and we leave again, Verstappen stuck in the back. 25 minutes ago 06:14 Round 6/58 Sainz Jr gets on a scooter to get back into the paddock and the safety car comes on this lap – then we’ll go racing again. Updated on 06.14 BST 26 minutes ago 06:13 Round 5/58 I think it will be one or two laps with the safety car, necessary and not virtual, as the pitch must be tuned to get Sainz’s Ferrari off the gravel. What a miserable weekend it was for him, but his teammate is ahead, something I’m sure will comfort him. 28 minutes ago 06:11 Round 4/58 The complete safety car is out now and Hamilton is in decent shape, having already won two places, and we see Stroll’s Aston Martin playing with an early pit to get out of trouble, taking advantage of the car’s condition security. 30 meters before 06:09 Round 3/58 Sainz passed Schumacher, lost control trying to correct a slip and the virtual safety car came out. He is on the off-track gravel and Leclerc is ahead with 2,008 by Verstappen. Hamilton third, Pereth fourth, Russell fifth, Norris sixth. 31 minutes ago 06:07 Round 2/58 Leclerc is 0.6 seconds ahead of Verstappen, but has probably not won as much as he should. Tsunoda passes Bottas in 11th place and Sainz will now know that he made a mistake in choosing the tough ones. It’s a full pit back after a lap and a half, then it flies out and that could mean a safety car! Updated on 06.11 BST before 33 p.m. 06:05 Round 1/58 Hamilton is doing very well and wins one place, then another, in third place, Botas passes Sains and Leclerc is ahead. Sainz has dropped to 13th place now! Before 34 meters 06:04 AND IT IS EXTINGUISHED! Before 35 meters 06:04 Let’s remember the drivers’ ratings: 1 Leclerc 45 2 Sainz Jr 33 3 Verstappen 25 4 Russell 22 5 Hamilton 16 Before 37 meters 06:02 The guides are ready! The formation round is in progress and we see great shots from a Melbourne drone, then we cut to see some last minute adjustments to the Verstappen car. This does not seem optimal. Updated on 06.02 BST 40 meters before 05:58 Given the hottest conditions of the week, the majority of drivers will be in a medium that they plan to change to hard, Sky estimates. 41 minutes ago 05:58 We are almost there. The music has started to skyrocket and there are graphic guides posing to look good – it’s been over 110 days since we had a tough race from here and you can be sure the crowd will be male – let’s hope so do the drivers too. Before 45 meters 05:54 Sky’s team speculates that Lewis Hamilton has taken a grace period to classify piercings that may now be against the rules. Sounds like school. 46 meters before 05:52 First corner of fun since 2002 …. 50 meters before 05:48 It is built here. Verstappen tells Sky that they were just “saying some things” in the car. He just wants to make a good start, he does not really think about when he will make his move. Before 53 meters 05:45 Hymn time. Before 54 meters 05:45 Ocon “is feeling well. Brilliant, sunny Australia, you can not be in a better place. ” To be fair, he has not tried my boxroom in north London. 55 meters before 05:44 “The wind turned a little bit,” says Daniel Ricciardo, “a little different from yesterday.” But he is quite happy with his car and happy with the energy from the crowd. “It’s crazy,” he says. “It was crazy all week.” 1 hour ago 05:41 Red Bull has “some kind of liquid leak in Max Verstappen’s car,” obviously. I do not think it’s important, but it’s not useful. 1 hour ago 05:39 George Russell says his car is not the most enjoyable to drive, but they work as hard as they can to make things better. Dylan Alcott, meanwhile, loves the response from the crowd and has driven a two-seater F1, one of his best experiences. Two difficult years have passed in Australia, he adds, so it feels creepy that this is the first time even in front of a packed crowd. “He has a terrible handshake,” notes Martin Brundle. 1 hour ago 05:36 Lando Nozzer notes that the beginning is a bit narrow, which should make things more difficult, but it does not bother him much as there are not many in front of him. Saying he is in the British Quarter, he makes it clear that he is ahead. 1 hour ago 05:34 Marco Materazzi is a fan, he responds with all the joy that one would expect when he was baited for the absence of Italy in the World Cup. 1 hour ago 05:33 It really has air out there, which will increase the intensity of the flows. But it is not raining as we were afraid. 1 hour ago 05:32 “The problem is that when you push this car a little more, it’s very vicious. “It’s like a viper or a rattlesnake, you never know.” Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have a problem. 1 hour before 05:30
Grid
1 Leclerc (Ferrari) 2 Verstappen (Red Bull) 3 Perez (Red Bull) 4 Norris (McLaren) 5 Hamilton (Mercedes) 6 Russell (Mercedes) 7 Ricciardo (McLaren) 8 Ocon (Alpine) 9 Sainz Jr (Ferrari) 10 Alonso (Alpine) 11 Gasly (Alpha Tauri) 12 Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 13 Choda (AlphaTauri) 14 Zhou (Alpha Romeo) 15 Schumacher (Haas) 16 Magnussen (Haas) 17 Vettel (Aston Martin) 18 Latifi (Williams) 19 Stroll (Aston Martin) 20 Albons (Williams) 2 hours ago 05:00
Preamble
It has become fashionable to talk about things superficially and completely – things can not just be good or bad, they must be the best or the worst, supposed facts announced in purple prose of the genre you just read. But we can all agree that, without a doubt, F1 is the strangest sport in the world, as it seems from the end of last season and the beginning of it. Consequently, it is not at all easy to read what we are about to see. The best driver can win, the best car can win or someone from behind can crash, leading to a closed field and one last lap free for all, because our tiny minds can only cope with things that are well packaged. Sorry, the most neatly packaged stuff of all time in the world… never! Anyway, today’s race and probably the next ones are an opportunity for drivers who are not called Lewis or Max. Between them, Hamilton and Verstappen have won 15 of the 22 races of last season, but things may be just different, their cars have not arrived yet …
