In his esteemed 11-season stint with Ferrari, Michael Schumacher achieved a hat trick result of pole position, victory and the fastest lap across 17 different race weekends – including a ‘grand slam’ in 2004, where he led every lap in Melbourne.
When Charles Leclerc took the first chequered flag to be waved on a grand prix at Albert Park in 1,120 days, he not only secured his second hat-trick in three races for Ferrari – and his first career grand slam – he did so with an air of dominance through which seven-time world champion Schumacher so famously forged his own legacy in Formula 1.
The near three-tenths of a second gap between Leclerc and second-placed Max Verstappen at the end of qualifying seemed ominous given the pair had been separated mainly by hundredths or thousands of a second over the start of the season. But with two Red Bulls behind him for the start and both demonstrating formidable top speed in practice, it looked like Leclerc would face more pressure in…