Scuderia Ferrari was capable of winning all three Grands Prix this year. But in Melbourne, world championship leader Charles Leclerc presented himself from the best side. Charles Leclerc impressively showed who was in charge with a hat trick marked by pole position, fastest race lap and start/finish victory. The superiority in the race was even greater than on one lap on Saturday. That surprised Ferrari itself.
Charles Leclerc had an answer to every attack by his pursuers. On the very last lap he shook off a best time that was six tenths below the second fastest lap. Only the safety car after Sebastian Vettel’s accident brought the competition close to the winner again.
On the medium tires, Max Verstappen was previously only able to follow his opponent within sight for ten laps. Then the left front tire began to suffer from graining. Shortly before the world champion’s pit stop, Charles Leclerc was already 8.3 seconds ahead.
Ferrari takes care of the tires
Charles Leclerc was also in a league of his own on the hard tires. And that should have been the better option for Red Bull. Shortly before Max Verstappen retired, the Ferrari driver’s lead had increased again to 7.2 seconds. the Monegasque driver was only vulnerable once. At the restart after the safety car, Max Verstappen was able to stay next to the Ferrari in the first corner.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner shook his head: “Ferrari hits the tire window better than we do.” For colleague Mattia Binotto, the key to tire management was good car balance. “Melbourne is not an easy track to find the balance between the slow and fast corners. We first concentrated on protecting the rear tires and already on Friday we realized that with the medium compound the left front tire starts to grain slightly. That’s about how it worked and Charles did a good job with tire management too.”
Charles Leclerc leads the championship standings by 34 points over George Russell. Despite his retirement on the second lap, Carlos Sainz is still third. The Spaniard wanted too much too quickly. He had fallen five positions at the start. The hard tires weren’t up to temperature yet when Carlos, sandwiched between Valtteri Bottas and Mick Schumacher, lost control of his car at Turn 9 and sailed into the gravel trap.
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According to German automobile magazine Auto Motor und Sport, the third race of the year highlighted the qualities of the F1-75 cars. They are fast, over a lap and over a race distance, regardless of the asphalt temperature and tire type, they are “reliable as tanks and easy on the tyres”, as AMuS points out. Even Charles Leclerc dared to say: “If it continues in this style, we can think about the championship.”
