Charles Leclerc won the 2022 Australian Grand Prix with a calm command and conquer display of driving and in doing so underscored the total dominance of Ferrari just three races into the season. Leclerc looked in total control and eased into the lead early on. Not even a safety car period, nor a brief attempt by Verstappen to take the lead thereafter could unsettle Leclerc’s focus. Teammate Carlos Sainz wasn’t in total control of his Ferrari, a visit to the gravel trap after just 1 lap was caused by an unforced error. His mistake was rewarded with a DNF.

Max Verstappen did his best to maintain a dignified gap to the Ferrari ahead of him, but he was second best to Leclerc for much of the race. Verstappen’s race ended on lap 38 of 58 after his Red Bull suffered an engine failure. Sebastian Vettel, returning after a bout of Covid-19, was another high-profile DNF. Vettel pushed his Aston Martin too hard, spun into a retaining wall and crashed out of the race on lap 22.

Mercedes, who struggled in qualifying, performed better during the race and appeared to have a similar lap pace to the Red Bulls. Ultimately they are still lacking in race pace and couldn’t keep up with the Red Bulls over a race distance. It is a case of close but not close enough.

Nevertheless, George Russell finished 3rd as a result of Verstappen’s exit and a lucky safety car period which demoted teammate Hamilton from 3rd to 4th. Next up were the McLarens of Norris and Ricciardo who seemingly have found a performance boost from nowhere.

Alex Albon rounded off the top 10 with a dogged drive that saw the Williams driver cover 57 laps on hard tyres. However, the Ferrari in the hands of Charles Leclerc was the class of the field and both man and machine were in a league of their own.

2022 Australian Grand Prix: Race Results

1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari

2 Sergio Perez1 Red Bull 20.524s

3 George Russell Mercedes 25.593s

4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 28.543s

5 Lando Norris McLaren 53.303s

6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 53.737s

7 Esteban Ocon Alpine 61.683s

8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo Racing 68.439s

9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 76.221s

10 Alex Albon Williams 79.382s

11 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo Racing 81.695s

12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 88.598s

13 Mick Schumacher Haas 1 LAP

14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1 LAP

15 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1 LAP

16 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1 LAP

17 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1 LAP

DNF

Max Verstappen Red Bull engine Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin crash Carlos Sainz Ferrari crash