Carlos Sainz Jr from Spain secured a victory for Ferrari in the Formula 1 World Championship in 2024, ending Red Bull’s hopes of an undefeated season. Sainz took advantage of a brake issue that forced Max Verstappen to retire, overtaking the struggling Red Bull early on and cruising to his third career win. His teammate Charles Leclerc followed closely behind, securing a 1-2 finish for Ferrari. McLaren also had a successful race, with Lando Norris achieving their best result at Albert Park since 2014 and claiming a spot on the podium.
The race saw some changes to the starting grid, with Logan Sargeant being replaced by Alex Albon and Zhou Guanyu starting from the pitlane. This resulted in a total of 18 drivers competing in the race. While most drivers opted for the Medium compound tires, Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo chose the Soft compound. Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg, on the other hand, went for the Hard compound.
At the start of the race, Verstappen and Sainz had a similar launch from the front row, with Verstappen defending his position on the inside. Norris managed to hold off Leclerc, while George Russell overtook Sergio Perez, who had been penalized for impeding during qualifying. Alonso initially dropped down the order but later regained a position.
Sainz had been keeping up with Verstappen and used the Drag Reduction System (DRS) to make a bold move around the outside of Turn 9 and take the lead. Verstappen, experiencing issues with his car’s stability, eventually had to retire as his right rear brake started emitting smoke. He was forced to pit and end his race prematurely.
The Dutch driver had been aiming to achieve a record-equalling 10th victory, but for the second time in three years, Verstappen failed to finish the race in Melbourne.
Mercedes took a gamble by putting Hamilton on the Soft tires at the start in order to make up ground from his starting position. He had to come into the pits to change tires on the eighth lap.
The seven-time champion switched to the Hard tires, but he struggled to get enough heat into them and had a minor incident at Turn 1.
Meanwhile, Russell had been using the more durable Medium tires, but Mercedes also brought him in for a pit stop one lap later, which led to Leclerc and Oscar Piastri also coming in.
Perez was the next front-running car to make a pit stop at the end of Lap 14 and came out just ahead of Hamilton. Hamilton tried to make a move at Turn 3 but was unsuccessful in the end.
Hamilton’s race would come to an end a few laps later as he reported a power unit failure and had to stop between Turns 9 and 10, becoming the second retirement.
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Hamilton’s stranded Mercedes, giving Aston Martin the opportunity to bring Alonso in for a pit stop with minimal time loss. Alonso emerged in fifth place.
Leclerc moved up to second after Norris made his pit stop and closed the gap to Sainz to less than a second. However, he was instructed over the radio to maintain his position behind his teammate.
Despite being on the Medium tires compared to Perez on the Hard tires, Alonso was unable to prevent the Red Bull driver from overtaking him with the assistance of DRS at Turn 9 on Lap 27, dropping Alonso to fifth.
Piastri was struggling with tire graining after his pit stop early in the race, and McLaren used team orders to allow Norris to move up to third and challenge Leclerc in the Ferrari.
Sainz was able to use his much fresher tires to extend his lead at the front to nine seconds, prompting Ferrari to bring Leclerc in for a second pit stop for new Hard tires on Lap 34.
McLaren had initially planned to bring one of their cars into the pit lane, but both cars remained on track. Leclerc came out ahead of the battle between Perez and Alonso.
Red Bull positioned Perez on a strategy requiring two pit stops, with the first stop occurring on Lap 35. Unfortunately, this caused the Mexican driver to drop down to ninth place. Meanwhile, Sauber encountered yet another issue with a wheel nut problem involving Zhou.
Piastri had fallen behind Norris and his situation didn’t improve when he braked too late into the penultimate corner at Turn 14. This mistake resulted in a lock-up and a loss of four seconds.
On Lap 39, Piastri made a detour into the pit lane to change his worn Hard tires. Norris followed suit on the next lap, also opting for a tire change.
Sainz had instructed his race engineer not to put him under pressure. As a result, he was called into the pits at the end of Lap 41. When he returned to the track, he had a five-second advantage over Leclerc.
Mercedes had initially left Russell out on the track, hoping he could complete the race without making a second pit stop. However, this plan was abandoned when Russell made a pit stop on Lap 45 and reemerged in seventh place.
During qualifying, Gasly was reprimanded for crossing the pit lane exit line. Unfortunately, he repeated this infraction during the race, resulting in a five-second time penalty.
Russell had been aggressively pursuing Alonso for sixth place but ended up pushing too hard and crashing into the barrier at Turn 7. This incident left Mercedes without a single point.
Sainz had previously secured the last non-Red Bull victory in Singapore six months ago. Now, he is responsible for ending Red Bull’s winning streak and Verstappen’s recent successes.
Leclerc followed closely behind his teammate to achieve a first-place finish for Ferrari, marking their first 1-2 result since the opening race of the 2022 season in Bahrain. Norris secured McLaren’s first podium finish of the season.
In his second home race, Piastri crossed the finish line in fourth place, earning McLaren a significant number of points. Perez, the only remaining Red Bull driver, had a disappointing fifth-place finish.
Alonso claimed sixth place, with his teammate Lance Stroll coming in seventh. Yuki Tsunoda, starting from eighth position, secured Red Bull’s first points of the 2024 season.
Nico Hulkenberg continued his promising start to the current campaign by finishing in ninth place. He led his teammate Kevin Magnussen, resulting in Haas scoring double points.