With a Ferrari 1-2, Purple Bull woe, a Mercedes on its aspect on the ultimate lap and a penalty for a ‘harmful’ driving for a double champion, the Australian Grand Prix was by far probably the most eventful of the 2024 Components 1 races to this point.
So who made the most effective of these circumstances and who contributed to the messiness? Right here’s Edd Straw’s judgement on the drivers’ performances and his best-to-worst rating for the Melbourne weekend.
How do the rankings work?
The 20 drivers can be ranked so as of efficiency from finest to worst on every grand prix weekend. This can be based mostly on the complete vary of standards, starting from tempo and racecraft to consistency and whether or not they made key errors. How shut every driver obtained to delivering on the utmost efficiency potential of the automobile can be an important consideration.
It’s vital to notice each that this displays efficiency throughout all the weekend, cognisant of the truth that qualifying is successfully ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it isn’t a rating of the all-round qualities of every driver. It’s merely about how they carried out on a given weekend. Due to this fact, the rating will fluctuate considerably from weekend to weekend.
And with every of the ten automobiles essentially having completely different efficiency potential and ‘luck’ (ie elements exterior of a driver’s management) contributing to the way in which the weekend performs out, this rating will even differ considerably from the general outcome.
Began: 2nd Completed: 1st
Carlos Sainz oozed class in Australia, one thing made all of the extra spectacular by the very fact he returned to the cockpit simply two weeks after an appendectomy.
He confirmed better aptitude for extracting probably the most from the tough C5 Pirellis than Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in qualifying and might need grabbed pole place however for a small mid-corner second in Flip 9/10 that became an even bigger snap on the exit. His race drive was executed fantastically.
Verdict: Excellent however time on the desk in qualifying.
Began: eighth Completed: seventh
Yuki Tsunoda comprehensively outperformed RB team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and was the category of the second half of the sector all through the weekend.
He was environment friendly in qualifying, reaching Q3 for the second time this season with tempo Ricciardo didn’t imagine was potential, then drove a clear and tidy race with the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll forward by no means fairly inside attain.
Verdict: Maximised each qualifying and race outcome.
Began: third Completed: third
A type of weekends Lando Norris grew into, gaining good confidence within the nick of time in qualifying to assert a spot on the second row after what he referred to as a “turnaround” having battled stability issues.
That laid the foundations for an excellent, clear race drive. He briefly misplaced third place to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri after operating 5 laps longer earlier than the primary pitstop however Norris would have gotten again forward even with out workforce orders intervening. A primary podium of 2024 was the reward.
Verdict: Recovered properly after observe struggles.
Began: 1st Completed: DNF
This was one other a type of weekends the place the Purple Bull’s weak spot in firing up the entrance tyres and the capricious gentle compound might have tripped up Max Verstappen, however didn’t.
It got here collectively in Q3, the primary session Verstappen topped all weekend, for what he referred to as an “surprising” pole place.
Sadly, the right-rear brake calliper seizing did damage Verstappen’s race by no fault of his personal.
Verdict: Early exit restricted the impression he might make.
Began: thirteenth Completed: fifteenth
It took Valtteri Bottas time to construct up confidence within the rear finish of the Sauber after his high-speed spin in FP1. However he was on the cash in qualifying and had a slight edge on his team-mate even earlier than Zhou Guanyu’s wing hassle.
Bottas was eleventh and heading in the right direction for a factors end when he made his ill-fated first pitstop, dropping virtually half a minute to a left-front wheelnut drawback.
Verdict: Would have scored however for unhealthy luck.
Began: 4th Completed: 2nd
Issues began to get away from Charles Leclerc in closing observe. He spent Saturday struggling to get the tyres working for a single lap and located himself “going from understeer to oversteer” on his deserted fresh-tyre lap in Q3.
The quarter-of-a-second deficit to Ferrari team-mate Sainz on Saturday, mixed with the very fact he struggled somewhat with the tyres within the second stint, meant higher than second within the race was by no means on.
Verdict: Couldn’t match Sainz’s tyre mastery.
Began: fifth Completed: 4th
Piastri confirmed good tempo, however there have been a couple of areas that swung the McLaren battle in opposition to him.
As he admitted, he made “too many errors when it mattered” in Q3 after outpacing McLaren team-mate Norris within the first two segments of qualifying.
Whereas Piastri jumped Norris because of a five-lap undercut after making an early cease in a thwarted try and undercut Leclerc, he would have fallen behind once more even with out workforce orders.
Apart from a tough second stint, the place he battled graining and had a short off, it was an honest race drive.
Verdict: Marginally second-best McLaren driver.
Began: sixteenth Completed: ninth
Nico Hulkenberg seemed to have the tempo to succeed in Q2 regardless of the Haas not being at its finest at Albert Park, however had a irritating Q1 with Sergio Perez impeding him on his first run then hassle with the change of wind course and overloading the entrance tyre in Flip 9/10 that value him time. As he put it, “not the cleanest of quali days”.
However he drove an excellent race, capitalising on pitting underneath the VSC to realize locations and, with the assistance of Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen letting him previous, selecting up ninth.
Verdict: Disappointing Saturday, sturdy Sunday.
Began: fifteenth Completed: sixteenth
Esteban Ocon celebrated making Q2 over the radio virtually as if it was a win, which was truthful given the Alpine was the slowest automobile round Albert Park.
However he flirted with catastrophe getting there, surviving a brush of the wall on the final nook on his first Q1 run.
The race was a dropping battle with futility as soon as a tear-off obtained caught in a brake duct and compelled an early second pitstop, costing what he maybe optimistically felt was a shot at factors.
Verdict: Did what he might with restricted equipment.
Began: 14th Completed: tenth
Magnussen put in a tidy efficiency in qualifying to make it to Q2, outpacing Ocon’s Alpine to earn a spot on the seventh row.
Whereas the Haas wasn’t a factors contender on benefit, he drove an excellent race on the orthodox two-stopper, passing Alex Albon utilizing DRS within the closing stint to take what turned tenth late on when George Russell crashed. He additionally performed the workforce sport alongside the way in which, letting Hulkenberg by.
Verdict: An honest weekend’s work.
Began: sixth Completed: fifth
Sergio Perez was unable to select up the items after Purple Bull team-mate Verstappen’s retirement, however there have been at the very least mitigating elements.
Firstly, the three-place grid penalty for impeding Hulkenberg in Q1 that was the workforce’s fault and secondly, the very fact the Purple Bull didn’t have the large race tempo benefit of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
That added as much as a weekend that was not as unhealthy because it seemed, however nonetheless somewhat disappointing.
Verdict: Just a little underwhelming.
Began: ninth Completed: sixth
Stroll had a quietly environment friendly weekend in Australia, leaving a few locations on the desk in qualifying because of a second in Flip 9/10 after which executing a clear race to select up an excellent outcome.
Whereas there have been no eye-catching peaks, he was at an honest sufficient degree all through and was rewarded with what was, after Fernando Alonso’s penalty, sixth place from what he referred to as a “strong” race.
Verdict: Not as fast as Alonso, however cleaner.
Began: seventh Completed: seventeenth
Russell appeared extra at peace with the constraints of the Mercedes than his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, though he struggled with the gentle tyres in qualifying and felt that left a few tenths of laptime inaccessible.
His race went properly till getting caught out by Alonso’s antics at Flip 6 on the penultimate lap, resulting in a heavy crash whereas operating seventh.
Might he have averted it? It’s tough to make sure however, because the stewards’ evaluation of the info discovered he was caught out by abruptly closing on Alonso when the Aston Martin driver braked for a second time, Russell will get the good thing about the doubt.
Verdict: Coped higher than Hamilton with Mercedes’ troubles.
Began: eleventh Completed: DNF
Hamilton struggled to return to phrases with the swings of a Mercedes he described as being on a knife-edge as soon as the wind constructed up on Saturday.
He would have made Q3 – at Russell’s expense – however for a small second within the penultimate nook, which left him eleventh on the grid.
His race didn’t final lengthy as he retired after 15 laps with a lack of oil strain whereas operating a few seconds behind eventual sixth-place finisher Stroll.
Verdict: Not as comfy as Russell.
Began: tenth Completed: eighth
A lot of small errors mixed to make this an unsatisfactory journey to Australia for Alonso.
He suffered flooring harm in a Friday off, had one other journey by the gravel on his closing Q3 run that left him tenth after which didn’t execute his try and hinder the chasing Russell at Flip 6 cleanly, ensuing within the penalty that value him two locations.
Verdict: An uncharacteristically messy weekend.
Began: seventeenth Completed: thirteenth
Pierre Gasly appeared to battle to construct momentum by the weekend, albeit whereas preventing a dropping battle in opposition to the shortage of tempo of the Alpine.
He couldn’t be a part of team-mate Ocon in Q2, complaining of a downshift drawback in Q1 however in the end not hooking up a lap nearly as good as his team-mate.
Then he did what he might within the race – save for a pointless five-second penalty for crossing the white line at pit exit that he’d already been caught out by earlier within the weekend.
Verdict: Barely untidy at instances.
Began: Pits Completed: fifteenth
Zhou’s tempo in Australia was first rate, however his weekend was undone by a tiny second of imprecision at Flip 10 when he ran fractionally broad on his closing Q1 lap.
That tore up his entrance wing and value him a Q2 place, leading to ranging from the again of the grid as Sauber didn’t have a spare of the new-spec meeting.
Progress was all the time going to be tough within the race even earlier than his prolonged pitstop, the consequence of a gearbox/anti-stall drawback that led to the automobile stalling.
Verdict: One other wasted weekend.
Began: 18th Completed: twelfth
Ricciardo was perplexed by the tempo deficit to RB team-mate Tsunoda even earlier than his closing Q1 lap was deleted, that means he didn’t make Q2.
When he noticed Tsunoda’s Q2 tempo, he was much more baffled and stated he was sceptical that the automobile was working because it ought to have been. There was no approach again within the race and the tempo wasn’t there to threaten the factors.
Verdict: One thing remains to be lacking.
Began: twelfth Completed: eleventh
On Saturday and Sunday, Albon dragged what he might out of the Williams and obtained it right into a place that may have yielded a factors end had the automobile had the tempo to take action. It didn’t, however Albon did what he might.
Sadly, Albon’s FP1 shunt had huge repercussions and led to team-mate Logan Sargeant being unable to race after having to relinquish the one remaining intact monocoque. Which means Albon plummets down the rankings.
Verdict: FP1 shunt proved disastrous.
Began: N/A Completed: N/A
Sargeant relinquished his chassis to permit team-mate Albon to run on Saturday and Sunday, so he is unranked on this event.
Previous to having at hand his automobile over, he confirmed a flash of tempo on Friday however value himself a heavy-fuel run by damaging his medium tyres when he spun in FP2.