MEGA PUSH: Charles Leclerc Dominates the Australian Grand Prix as Disaster Strikes Again for Max Verstappen

Mark Thompson. Getty Images.

What a Saturday of sports. We had the third round of The Masters, an awesome card of UFC fights, the DAZN boxing match, then finished the night with the Australian Grand Prix as the perfect night cap at 1am ET. Everyone who powered through and stayed up last night was rewarded with a fun and dramatic race in Melbourne. Charles Leclerc dominated from start to finish out front, but there were fantastic battles up and down the grid. Let's break it all down.

The start of the race was clean and Leclerc held onto his lead, but it was the other Ferrari car of Carlos Sainz Jr. that found trouble leading to the first retirement of the race. Sainz had a tough weekend in Australia. He started the race in ninth place after his best lap of qualifying had to be aborted due to a red flag and then he wasn't able to get another flying lap in because of an issue starting his car. He looked like he had the pace to compete at the front of the grid this weekend, but a bad start and subsequent crash led to him scootering back to pit lane empty handed. A weekend of disappointment and missed opportunities for the Spaniard.

The race restarted and Leclerc put the hammer down, he pulled away from Verstappen with ease. Leclerc opened up a several second lead, but there was a fantastic battle between Hamilton and Perez for third place going on behind Leclerc and Verstappen. Was a ton of fun seeing the two of them battle on track.  A few laps later, we started to see our first and only round of pit stops start for the field. As everyone was cycling through the pits, Sebastian Vettel brought out the second safety car of the day, ending what was already a miserable weekend for the Aston Martin driver. 

No one has had a worse start to the season than Vettel. He missed the first two races of the season due to Covid, which meant that this weekend was his first chance to fully get up to speed with the new regulation cars this year. He didn't get much time to practice, because he had an engine failure in the first practice of the weekend which left him sitting out for the remainder of Friday's practice sessions. After his car failure in practice, he decided to catch a ride back on a scooter to pit lane, which gave us this incredible moment. However, it was also worthy of a 5,000 Euro fine from the FIA. Stop being the no fun police, FIA. Let Vettel live his his best life.

In Saturday morning's practice session he crashed again and the team was only able to get his car fixed in time for one run during qualifying. He started the race at the back of the grid and the crash during the race finally put an end to his miserable weekend. The Aston Martin car this year is well off the pace and it looks like this won't be the last long weekend for Vettel this year. At least he looks like he's enjoying himself out there, scootering off into the sunset.

On the second restart of the race, we had our only moment where Leclerc looked under pressure. Verstappen made a run on him going into turn one, but the Ferrari driver was able to hold him off and extend his lead again. Everyone's attention turned to the other battles happening up and down the top ten. The biggest winner of the safety car was Mercedes driver, George Russell. He pitted right as the safety car came out and jumped up into third place behind Leclerc and Verstappen. Right behind him was Alpine driver, Fernando Alonso, Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. Alonso had yet to pit and Perez quickly got by him and it was now a battle between Mercedes and Red Bull for the final spot on the podium.

Right as Perez made the move on Russell to secure third place, disaster struck for the other Red Bull car of Verstappen. Verstappen had been pushing to close the gap to Leclerc, but the reliability of the Red Bull failed for the second time in three races. Verstappen had to quickly park his car on the side of the track as flames started to appear from the engine.

A dagger for Verstappen and Red Bull. What looked like it was going to be an easy double podium for the team was ruined. Verstappen was understandably frustrated as he stood on the side of the track, leaving the weekend with zero points. Verstappen and Red Bull have been competitive in every race this season and look like the main challenger to Leclerc and Ferrari for the World Championship, but this is now two races with zero points. It's not going to be much of a title defense if Verstappen has more weekend's like this one.

The Red Bull car failure didn't stop Christian Horner from taking shots at Mercedes and Toto Wolff. Kings stay king. Christian Horner is going to Christian Horner.

With Leclerc's only real competition for the weekend out of the race, he cruised to an easy victory in Melbourne. Two wins in three races for the Ferrari driver, his fourth career victory. Leclerc was on a different level all weekend long. Leclerc pulled off a Grand Slam: pole position, lead every lap, clock the fastest lap, and win the race. Three races into the season, it already looks like it is Leclerc and Ferrari's championship to loose. It's a very long season, but Red Bull looks like the only team that can match Ferrari's pace but they have to figure out the reliability issues with their cars if Verstappen is going to make this a title fight. One thing is certain… Ferrari is BACK. 

Joining Leclerc on the podium was Perez who rebounded after an unlucky race in Saudi Arabia to finish a very solid second place in Australia. Perez continued to show he is the steady and reliable driver that Red Bull have been searching for in the second seat next to Verstappen. He brought home great points for the team that will keep them in contention in the Constructors Championship battle.

Rounding out the podium was George Russel in his Mercedes. This was his second podium ever and first as a Mercedes driver. He got a lucky bounce with the safety car timing, but he made the most of his luck and drove a solid race to finish in third ahead of his teammate Hamilton. The Mercedes car still doesn't have the pace to compete at the top with Ferrari and Red Bull, but they have made the most of their opportunities this season. Hamilton was frustrated with the team at the end of the race complaining about the team's strategy decision which left him behind Russell, but there was nothing the team could have done. Hamilton just got unlucky timing: that's racing. An interesting story line to follow this year is how the Russell vs. Hamilton relationship develops. Russell is young and hungry to deliver results at Mercedes. He's not going to back down to Hamilton, which could lead to fireworks later this season. Keep that one in your tickler file.

All of the talk this season has been about the potential championship battle between Leclerc and Verstappen, Ferrari vs. Red Bull, but after three races Leclerc has already built a very comfortable lead in the Driver's Championship and Merecedes is ahead of Red Bull in the Constructor's Championship. Not the way that Verstappen and Red Bull wanted to start the season. 

There were two other outstanding performances in the top ten this weekend to highlight. The first being the McLaren drivers. After a dismal start to the season, everyone was writing the McLaren obituary, but they came to Australia and delivered. Both drivers qualified in the top ten and backed up that result with a very solid race day. They were back to where they left off in 2021, battling at the top of the midfield. It was awesome to see Daniel Ricciardo soaking in the atmouphere in Australia all weekend long. Nothing was going to wipe the smile off his face. It was a great weekend for the Aussie who finally broke his string of bad luck at his home grand prix bringing the car home in seventh place. Lando Norris finished just ahead of him in sixth place. It will be interesting if this great result was a product of the car being well suited for this track or if they've made successful upgrades to their car to fix the problems they were facing in the first two races of the season. Time will tell, but there's hope if you're a McLaren fan after this weekend.

The second outstanding performance was Alex Albon for Williams. Williams is another team that has struggled at the start of the season. Albon started the race in last place, but the team made the bold decision to not pit until the last lap of the race. It's a rule in F1 that you have to pit at least once during the race, specifically because you have to race on two different compounds of tyres. Every other team pitted around the middle of the race, but William's kept Albon out so that he could make up track position. This could have easily backfired, but Albon did an incredible job of managing his tyres and made it until the last lap of the race before pitting and finishing in tenth place. This secured the first point of the season for Albon and Williams. It was a miraculous drive and another example of what makes F1 so much fun to watch, there's always more going on than just the battle for first place. For a team like Williams this season, finishing in tenth place is a victory and they celebrated like it after the race.

What a race weekend in Australia. It was awesome seeing F1 racing at Albert Park again after the last two years were cancelled. The crowd and atmosphere were fantastic all weekend long. I am also ALL IN on Saturday night races. Was so much fun ending the fantastic sports day watching F1 cars go around in circles.

The next F1 race is April 24th at Imola. Ferrari will be on home soil and the Italian fans will be BUZZING all weekend long. It will also be the first sprint qualifying race of the season. This season is far from over, but as of right now the Ferrari and Leclerc hype is at an all time high. Will be interesting how the rest of the grid responds in the coming weeks.

Mrags, Dante, and I have been doing Twitter Spaces talking all things F1 the past few weeks. We had a fantastic guest, Spanners, from the Missed Apex podcast, join us this week. It's a great listen if you're a new F1 fan and trying to learn more about the sport. Go give him a follow and follow me on Twitter to hop into the next Twitter Space #GrowthePaddock

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And finally…

Giphy Images.

LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO TO THE ROLEX GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA