Australian Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc won the 2022 Australian Grand Prix to consolidate his and Ferrari's championship leads as Max Verstappen suffered a second retirement in ...

Behind Stroll was Mick Schumacher, the Haas driver running wide on Lap 12 and again on Lap 50 – but passing Magnussen, who pitted for from hards to mediums with 20 laps remaining, late on. As for McLaren, they ran a lonely race to P5 and P6, Norris just 0.4s ahead of homecoming team mate Ricciardo at the flag – the Australian having run as high as P4 before his Lap 22 stop for hards. Yuki Tsunoda started 13th on mediums and briefly battled for the final points-paying position, but ended up 15th as his pace waned on hard tyres. The Williams driver, having started last thanks to a grid penalty from Saudi Arabia, made it as high as P7 and lost just three places with his late pit stop. The call to box came on Lap 19 – Verstappen coming in for a set of hard tyres and emerging seventh. The VSC was Race Control’s answer to the Dutchman’s bad luck – a second DNF in three races. The race restarted a second time on Lap 27, the whole field on hards, but Leclerc’s start was glacial out of the final corner with Verstappen almost alongside into Turn 1. Hamilton followed suit with Leclerc and, on cold hard tyres, he was just milliseconds ahead of the Mexican – the pair going side by side onto the lakeside run to Turn 9 when Perez made a stunning move around the outside. There was an answer to the Ferrari’s pace – but just how strong was it? Safety Car in for Lap 7, Leclerc dropped the hammer with Verstappen and Hamilton right in his tow down to Turn 1. Driver of The Day Leclerc kept his rival Verstappen at bay through two Safety Cars – the first when team mate Carlos Sainz spun out from P14 on Lap 2, and the second on Lap 23 after Sebastian Vettel’s crash. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s pace on mediums had taken a turn and now Perez was under pressure from the seven-time champ.

Max Verstappen's hot-and-cold season continued as he suffered a second DNF in three races, while Mercedes decided to not enforce team orders as George Russell ...

It was an incredibly brave move and arguably put Perez in a strong position to finish on the podium once the race resumed, which of course he eventually did. He also set the fastest lap of the race to give himself an extra championship point. He navigated the two safety car restarts very well and when he did need to defend, did so resolutely. That winning instinct never goes away and that exchange is a perfect example of that. The Red Bull driver tried to dive around the outside going into turn one, but Leclerc defended resolutely and held position. The Scuderia star cruised to his second race win of the season, extending his championship lead as Perez came home second with Russell securing his first podium of the season in third.

Two years after the last-minute cancellation near the pandemic's start, the FIA Formula One World Championship has finally returned to Albert Park in ...

With the addition of pole position, Charles Leclerc became the 26th different driver to have a Grand Slam victory in Formula 1 history. Charles Leclerc would go on not only to win the race but also set the fastest lap and led every lap of the race. It was a disappointing end to Vettel’s first race of his season after testing positive for COVID and missing the first two races. Leclerc has a pace advantage over his Red Bull rival and was able to pull a gap of five seconds. Leclerc won pole on Saturday by three-tenths of a second over Verstappen. The race start also went in Leclerc’s favor. He caused a collision with fellow Canadian Nicholas Latifi as the Williams driver was passing him during qualifying.

Max Verstappen is off to a rough start to his Formula 1 title defense after an engine-related failure at the Australian Grand Prix.

The marshalls gave the car a thorough spray of the fire extinguisher on hand and moved it behind the barrier in a timely fashion. This second DNF makes 2022 the worst opening three rounds of Verstappen’s career since his rookie season in 2015. Verstappen opened the season in Bahrain by qualifying second behind Charles Leclerc and spent most of the race holding that position. “I knew I could not fight Charles so there was no point in even trying to put pressure on him.” All seemed right in the Red Bull garage. Verstappen emerged from his car and restlessly motioned for track marshalls to bring a fire extinguisher as fumes wafted from the stricken Red Bull’s engine cover.

We're back in Melbourne for the first time since 2019. Here's how to watch the Australian Grand Prix no matter where you are.

For those wanting to watch home coverage of sports from overseas, a good VPN (opens in new tab) is the solution. Most people will want to go for F1 TV Pro, which is the way to live stream every F1 Grand Prix in full – along with F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup as well. Just note that not all regions have an F1 TV package with live Grand Prix coverage, with the UK and Australia being notable exceptions. With Lights Out at 3pm local time, F1 fans in Europe are in for an early morning – or a very late night – but, for those dedicated enough to tune in, this could be a crucial weekend in deciding the frontrunner of the season. Saturday kicks off at 3.45am for Practice 3, and Qualifying starts at 6am. Watch an Australian Grand Prix free live stream from anywhere. For Brits, though, it'll be a weekend of late nights and early mornings... Coverage of the Australian GP begins on Sky Sports F1 at 3.30am GMT on Friday for Practice 1, then 6.45am for Practice 2. We've put all the major VPNs through their paces and we rate ExpressVPN as our top pick, thanks to its speed, ease of use and strong security features. Here's how it works and how to use it. For the sake of good racing, we hope this pays off. Only the GP will tell, but we hope so.

The 2022 Australian Grand Prix smashed the attendance benchmark Formula One achieved in 2021 and set a new record for the highest attended weekend sporting ...

Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief Andrew Westacott believes the figure at this year's event could have been even greater had they been permitted to sell additional tickets. The weekend figure topped the 400,000 achieved at last year's United States Grand Prix in Austin, F1's best attendance result of 2021. It's definitely a good crazy and there's a lot of support and love.

The five starting lights have been extinguished at the Australian Grand Prix for the first time since 2019 – with Charles Leclerc using his pole position to ...

Behind those two, Lewis Hamilton jumped up to P3 from P5 on the grid. LIVE COVERAGE: Follow all the action from the 2022 Australian Grand Prix WATCH: The action gets under way at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen is not thinking about the defence of his world championship after suffering a second DNF in three races at the Australian Grand Prix.

But we need to get the car back and look at what actually is happening. But these kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen." "It's more important to finish races.