2024 Australian GP

A tough weekend in Melbourne came to an end with both cars failing to finish the race at Albert Park.

Lewis suffered from a Power Unit failure in the early stages of the race, whilst George suffered a big accident on the penultimate lap.

George, starting P7 on the Medium tyre, gained a couple of positions early on whilst Lewis did similar on the Soft compound. They pitted early onto the Hard tyre, but Lewis’s race would not last much longer. A Power Unit failure consigning him to retirement.

The Virtual Safety Car was deployed which enabled the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso to jump George. With a gap of over nine seconds to catch, George set about whittling it down over his final two stints.

By extending his middle stint, he was able to emerge on fresher rubber and put pressure on Alonso in the closing stages. Unfortunately, he crashed at Turn 6 on the second to last lap and was out of the race. He reported that he was OK over the radio but it was a disappointing end to a tough three days here in Melbourne.

The stewards investigated the incident after the race and decided to hand Alonso a drive through penalty imposed after the race which was converted to 20 seconds added to the elapsed time in the race.

Victory was taken by Carlos Sainz who led a Ferrari 1-2 with Leclerc in second. Lando Norris completed the podium in third.

The team will be working hard to bring more performance to the car ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in two weeks’ time.

Lewis Hamilton

My race was going OK up until the point we suffered the Power Unit failure. It’s quite tough to overtake here but we had gained some positions early on with the Soft tyre. It was unfortunate that we had to retire as there was still a long way to go. I was beginning to press on, but the Power Unit just stopped. These things happen and I know we will bounce back.

We will also improve the car as the season goes on. We have done so in previous years, and I am confident we will do so again. It is tough that we are not as competitive as we would like at the moment, but we will keep working hard. I am focused on doing that with the team. In the short term, I expect we will still find it difficult to challenge further up but we will see what we can do in the medium term.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

That was a very disappointing end to a tough weekend, with a significant amount of accident damage to remedy ahead of Japan in two weeks’ time. We went into the race hoping to make progress forward from our grid positions: with Lewis, that involved starting on the Soft, which helped him gain positions on the opening lap, and George on the Medium. Lewis’s race was cut short by a sudden and unexpected Power Unit failure; we had no warning of it and will need to investigate further when the PU returns to Brixworth. For George, he knew he had to complete two long stints on the Hard and find the right balance between pushing the tyre and stretching out its life. It was clear that we were unable to fight with the three teams in front, and he was racing for P6 after Alonso had pitted under the VSC for Lewis’s retirement and gained track position. George had an opportunity to get the place back on the final stint and was clearly caught by surprise by the unexpected deceleration in front on the penultimate lap.

It has been a bruising weekend for us, during which we were unable to compete on a single lap or the long runs, and we will be continuing to trawl through the data in the coming days, to see what isn’t working and why we are only currently able to deliver flashes of performance from the car. It’s clear that we have much to work on, to give both drivers a better tool to work with at the race weekends. We now need to get our heads down, work through the challenges one by one, and aim to deliver a stronger showing next time in Suzuka.

2024 Australian GP Race Results

* Drive-through penalty converted in 20-second penalty