YOU WANT THE LONG STORY? ALEX ALBON MADE HIS POINT
His remarkable 57-lap stint landed Williams a vital score in Australia and means the Thai joins race winner Charles Leclerc on a maximum
Started 5th --------------- Result 4th Was the lead Mercedes driver, barring Russell’s safety-car-stop fortune. Made a great start to pass Perez, and superior tyre management helped him overcut at the stops too. Felt he couldn’t challenge Russell’s podium because his car was overheating in his team-mate’s wake.
Started 7th --------------- Result 6th Ended up behind Russell in Q3. Might have got ahead with his best sectors but struggled on final set of softs. Held his ground despite start wheelspin, then put in a race-long pursuit of Norris, using DRS to make up for tyre-wear time loss. Felt this was worse on hards, but was close by the finish.
Started 6th ------------ Result 3rd Nearly beat Hamilton in qualifying, did get outqualified by Norris, but made a decisive pass at the first corner and from there raced well. Lucked in on timing of second safety car, but defied Perez before wisely choosing not to fight a much faster car. Comfortable in front of Hamilton late on.
Started 4th --------------- Result 5th Rode Mclaren’s impressive form turnaround on the smooth track surface to score fourth on the grid. Made a “small misjudgement” with wheelspin at the start and dropped behind both Mercedes. Pushed to keep up and wore his tyres, but soaked up pressure from his chasing team-mate.
Started 2nd ----------------------- Result R
Low-drag set-up choice meant a compromise on balance, and a lack of confidence in qualifying. In the race he was undone by the tyres graining before the reliability woe he’d feared got him. Hard to see what else he could have done, other than avoiding the firststint Turn 13 lock-up that added tyre stress.
Started 10th ---- Result 17th Must score this for his poor second stint. In qualifying he claimed he could have got in the pole hunt before the hydraulics problem led to crash. Ran strongly early in the race, but second safety car blighted his strategy. Battling in a DRS train late on ruined his mediums and so stopped again. Started 3rd ------------ Result 2nd Felt he made the wrong call on two late Q3 fliers since that meant carrying extra fuel for no gain. Getting passed by Hamilton at the first corner and again in the pitstops hurts his score, although his Turn 9 pass on the Mercedes was nifty. Hunted down Russell to rescue something for Red Bull.
Started 8th --------------- Result 7th A decent result but could have been so much more. Felt a lack of rear confidence cost him a higher grid spot, and couldn’t gain on Ricciardo at the start. Did bring it home for points, but couldn’t pass Albon for more than half the GP. Lift-and-coast need for rising temperatures didn’t help his cause.
Started 1st ------------------ Result 1st Took easy pole largely thanks to his boldness in Turn 6, then nailed the start and covered Verstappen before he retired. Running wide onto the final-corner marbles for the second restart was his only mistake, but still gains maximum marks from us because Verstappen didn’t pass.
Started 11th --------- Result 9th Alphatauri’s slip back into the midfield fight made reaching Q3 tough, but had he hooked up his best Q2 sectors he’d have made it. Gained at start, then undone by stopping just before second safety car. Fought back from 14th to score, but late Turn 13 off on worn rubber gifted Bottas eighth.
Started 9th ------------------------ Result R Pushing too early on hard tyres led to his Turn 9 off while fighting Schumacher, but that was his only mistake. Missing his Q3 banker to the Alonso red flag, then his car not firing up quickly ahead of the final fliers and a late pre-race steering wheel change was terrible misfortune.
Started 13th ---- Result 15th Struggled in Q2 with lost rear confidence, then impeded his team-mate (he said sorry) but did beat an Alfa. In the race he was another out of luck stopping just before the second safety car, but lacked pace on both the medium and hard tyres and so struggled to stay in the Drs-train scrap.
Started 17th ------------------- Result R
Tough to score given how he’s missed two races of experience with the new cars.
His FP3 crash was unfortunate, then did enough on his one Q1 lap to outqualify Latifi’s absent Williams. Crashed out pushing too hard in the race. Hitting the Turn 4 kerb too hard was a key mistake.
Started 16th ---- Result 14th Battled nausea coming into the weekend, and he struggled to get into the groove, which he felt led to his Q1 exit. Much better in the race, but was undone by the second safety car wrecking his strategy of starting on the hards. Did gain with a VSC stop, but it wasn’t enough to score points. Started 19th ---- Result 12th Several things mean a three. First his FP3 shunt, after
Aston made late set-up changes to cope with porpoising. In his crash with Latifi he should have been more aware of what was happening. Raced and battled well on a net two-stopper after his early stops, other than his weaving gaffe.
Started 15th ---- Result 13th Beat Magnussen in qualifying, as Haas struggled to get the tyres into the temperature working range. In the race he lost positions with a pair of offs – at Turn 10 in short early medium running, and at Turn 1 late on the hards. His Tsunoda safety-car near-miss was scary, prompting a rules review.
Started 18th ---- Result 16th
Was unfortunate in his Q1 crash with Stroll. In the race he lapped at the back, even with a free second safety-car stop, struggling with graining on both compounds. It’s what his team-mate did to earn points for Williams when that’s such a challenge in 2022 that hurts his score the most.
Started 20th ---- Result 10th Discretion at play here: if he’d pulled his best sectors before the Q1 stoppage he’d have made Q2. Did a 57-lap race stint on the hards from last after quali fuel disqualification. Held off Ocon with many qualifying-spec laps, building a gap to seal 10th after an incredibly late stop.
Started 14th ---- Result 11th Showed well compared to Bottas. Decent qualifying with a car set up for the race, then aced the start, helping Alfa solve its previous weakness. Others gaining under the safety car hurt him in second stint and he ran out of rubber while battling, which meant he slid at Turn 2 on last lap as Albon escaped.
Started 12th --------- Result 8th Felt prioritising race set-up meant he lacked downforce to reach Q3, but he’d have beaten Gasly if he’d hooked up his best sectors. Pushed throughout the race to climb the order and make key passes. Briefly lost a place to Stroll at the VSC restart – might’ve accelerated quicker beforehand.