A sometimes chaotic and controversial race weekend in Australia saw the fewest finishers of a race so far this season after multiple red flags and a melee at the final restart.
It was a challenging weekend for some near the top of the order, while others who have endured a tough start to the season found luck on their side in the Southern Hemisphere.
Here are RaceFans’ driver ratings for the Australian Grand Prix.
Stars
Max Verstappen – 7/10
Qualified: Pole (+19 places ahead of team mate
Start: -2 places
Strategy: M-H-S
Finished: Winner (+4 places ahead of team mate)
- Earned a €700 fine in first practice for speeding in the pit lane
- Fastest in first and third practice
- Quickest in all three qualifying phases to take pole
- Lost lead and second place at the start to the Mercedes, gaining second when Russell pitted
- Held second at the restart before breezing back into the lead the moment DRS was activated
- Easily pulled a lead over Hamilton while managing his tyres
- Brief off at turn 13 cost him a handful of seconds but did not threaten his lead
- Head the lead on the final restart and then led the field around the final lap to win his second race of the year
Verstappen looked to be in shape to cruise to victory after dominating qualifying, but after he was beaten off the line by Russell, he was nailed by Hamilton into turn two. After the restart, he simply turned up the pace when he wanted to and made one of the easiest passes for the lead in memory and never looked under threat after that. He kept his cool over the messy finish of the race to take a deserved win, but can’t earn a higher mark for losing places at the start and running off track with an unforced error later on.
Sergio Perez – 5/10
Qualified: 20th (-19 places behind team mate
Start: +2 places
Strategy: H-M-H-S-S
Finished: 5th (-4 places behind team mate)
- Behind team mate in every session
- Struggled with braking in third practice, running off track multiple times
- Eliminated first in Q1 after running into the gravel at turn three with “technical issue”
- Started from the pit lane after changing power unit components under parc ferme
- Pitted on first lap, then passed Bottas and Zhou before red flag
- Restarted 13th but dropped to 16th, then passed six cars to move into ninth
- Overtook Norris and Hulkenberg to take seventh place where he would finish, despite running off track at final restart
- Set the fastest lap of the race
Assessing Perez’s weekend comes down to how much…
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