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The Australian GP saw Charles Leclerc stamp his authority on the championship. Ferrari was performing at a level that was unmatched even by Red Bull, and in the end, it was the Prancing Horse that picked up their second win of the season. There was far more to the race than the battle at the front, however. Fernando Alonso suffered from one unfortunate circumstance after the other while Alex Albon produced a classic drive to give Williams its first point of the season.
The Australian GP was not one to remember for Aston Martin or its drivers as it packs its bags from Down Under without a point on the board. While the teams look forward to the race in Imola, let's look back and recap what happened in the race in our review of the Australian GP.
2022 F1 Australian GP: Race Review
Driver of the Day
Alex Albon
Alex Albon might not score too many points this season. When he does, however, he deserves to be the driver of the day. Regardless of what Charles Leclerc did by winning the race or George Russell did by scoring a podium with Mercedes, Albon drove the slowest car on the grid and fended off an Alpine on fresher tires for the bulk of the race.
To add to this, he extended his hard tire stint for a ridiculous 57 laps, finally scoring Williams' first points of the season. If that is not worthy of being the driver of the day, then nothing is.
Surprise of the weekend
McLaren's return to form
McLaren was next to last at Bahrain GP. The car looked woeful and had no pace in the first race of the season. At the Australian GP, McLaren pushed Mercedes for the first part of the race and successfully fended off the advances of Alpine driver Esteban Ocon. That wasn't all as Lando Norris qualified in fourth and finished fifth in the race just ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
McLaren had shown positive signs in Saudi Arabia but at the Australian GP, they've shown that they're back in contention in the midfield.
Disappointment of the weekend
Aston Martin
Aston Martin is now at the bottom of the constructors' championship. The team saw both the drivers get eliminated in Q1. During the Australian GP weekend, the team had to overcome three major accidents. In the end, the team has no points to show for and could just be the worst team on the grid now. Talking about disappointments, nothing gets bigger than this.
The 'Feel-Good' moment
Williams scoring points
There are indeed no excuses for Williams having one of the worst cars on the grid and one should not try to find any for it either. Whenever a team that has such a rich history in the sport punches above its weight and scores points, however, you can't help but feel good about them.
Williams is now 9th in the championship ahead of Aston Martin. Looking at where it is in terms of performance, the team will take this result gleefully.
The biggest shock
Max Verstappen's retirement
Unless there was another safety car period, Max Verstappen was not going to beat Charles Leclerc and Red Bull would have had a lot on its plate after the Australian GP. The retirement, his second in 3 races, however, is a shocker. The reigning champion is now 46 points behind Leclerc through no fault of his own. Even though the championship is 23 races long, that's not the kind of gap that is easy to surmount.
The Australian GP - Sympathy Corner
This is our new addition to the Australian GP race review and this section is solely dedicated to Fernando Alonso. What we saw this weekend were glimpses of the genius of that man. His ability to find that extra bit in the car and just put it in places that it does not even deserve is what Alonso has built his career on.
He was in that kind of form this weekend, destined for the top-3 in qualifying before the hydraulics failure. Even in the race, Alonso had the pace to match the teams in front. Sadly for him, the unfortunate timings of safety cars and virtual safety cars ruined his race and left him with nothing to show for the weekend. In a parallel universe, Fernando Alonso would have been a podium finisher at the Australian GP. This time around, however, he goes home with zilch.
