Well deserved win for Norris. Feels like there was every opportunity for events to screw the fastest driver in the fastest car, despite the team making the right calls at the right time.
Often in f1 this kind of race ends up with a surprise winner. Itโs part of what makes the sport so great, but also so frustrating at times. With Max having been so dominant over the past few seasons itโs just nice to see McLaren not dropping the ball.
He could have had a really good result too, judging by where Stroll and Kimi ended up. P5 might have been on for Fernando. The car might not be as bad as I had feared (still not great).I was watching onboards and lap times and Alonso was gapping Stroll and keeping Antonelli behind him just before the crash.
I was watching onboards and lap times and Alonso was gapping Stroll
To be fair, stroll was on wets on a drying track so that was not such a big achievement. Yes he would have finished ahead of stroll, but I don't think he would have finished ahead of kimi or albon
I don't think so. They only asked him not to overtake him for a short period of time, where they were lapping backmarkers and the track conditions were bad. From a team perspective it makes no difference which cars are first and second, just that they actually bring the cars home in that order.
I think the team orders screwed Piastri. He was clearly in the zone and he was quicker than Norris and he definitely wanted to see if he could get past Norris. When the orders came in his flow was ruined and he started to make mistakes. I get what McLaren were going for, but I think it was unfair towards Piastri. If there's ever a time to let drivers race it out in such conditions it would be the first race of the season, and McLaren didn't even let them do that.
I think Piastri was faster because Norris was nursing his tires, and Piastri made mistakes because he was pushing it too hard. I think Norris had him beat - not by much - but had him beat by margins throughout the weekend and was a very deserving winner.
Happy for Norris, amped for Williams and Albon. Sucks Sainz went out early. Ferrari doing Ferrari shit still, Yuki got screwed a bit. I'm sure conditions jumbled it a bit, but Verstappen not looking as far off the pace as people were assuming, in a worse car, in hard conditions. I'm sure Norris was strategizing and coasting a bit, cause those McLarens held up those initial intermediates well and it seemed other cars were burning through them.
Sainz crashing out behind the safety car. Piastri getting the traditional, โAussie driver at AusGPโ experience.
Iโm going to need till Tuesday before I can start talking to people again.
Just finished watching, thankfully managed to avoid spoilers. What a start to the season! Pace of McLaren is a bit ominous in terms of competitive outlook for the season however. But I hope they let them race eachother so we get a title fight at least.
Super happy for Albon, Williams looked genuinely fast and he drove well in tricky conditions. Ferrari looked nowhere and actually slower than Williams, but it's a weird circuit and difficult conditions so it might not be quite as bad as it looks. Hamilton looked significantly worse than Leclerc, but I guess we're still in the "new team grace period"?
Tough day for the rookies as you would expect with the weather, but I was extremely impressed by Antonelli. Watched his onboard all race and he had great pace even in the rain and absolutely no fear.
Gutted for Yuki though who got the usual VCARB screw job after a blinder of a weekend performance wise. It's enough to make you cry.
They broke it for 1/3 of the race. Before they switched it off I realised the numbers weren't updating for over a lap.
They turned on the driver tracker map to try and compensate, and kept flashing up gap between driver headlines at the bottom of the screen
Thoroughly enjoyable grand prix. Deserved winner in Norris who had pole, fastest lap and P1. Great drive from Max as well and also Albon and Hulkenberg. This season is going to be a doozy!
Great opening race! Was very nervous for Norris but he did a great job, mature drive. Feel bad for Piastri. Great result for Williams, more of that from them please!