Mercedes risked and won, Ferrari lost precious time

• What is Overcut F1? We dissect the 24 races of an amazing Formula 1 season, every critical point, every overtake. From the genius maneuvers to the “What was in his head?” moments. We explain why some chose undercut, others overcut, and others simply hoped it wouldn't rain.

Seen by all experts as the favorite to win the constructors' and drivers' world titles, Mercedes started the Australian Grand Prix from the front row: Russell from pole, Antonelli.

Instead, Ferrari started from 4th (Leclerc) and 7th (Hamilton). In practice, Lewis' car was 6th, because Oscar Piastri (5) did not start the race, his place on the grid being empty.

Ferrari, on par with Mercedes

And, as the fans hoped and the specialists also expected after the Bahrain tests, the Ferrari cars went off like a cannon at the start. Leclerc finished first, ahead of Russell, and Hamilton was third. This while Kimi had a missed start and ended up 7th.

And for 12 laps, Leclerc and Russell alternated leading the race, overtaking each other several times. While Hamilton was also one second off 3rd place with Antonelli right behind him.

Ferrari, unresponsive

In the 12th lap there was the moment when the Ferrari engineers made the wrong decision, being unresponsive to the move made by Mercedes. What happened? Isack Hadjar's engine caught fire, forcing him to abandon. The Frenchman pulled the Red Bull car to the side of the track, and the marshals decided that the Virtual Safety Car was needed to be able to take the single-seater to a safe area.

• The VSC means that pilots must reduce speed by 30-40% and overtaking is not allowed. Such a moment is a good opportunity for drivers to stop by the pits for a tire change. This is because all the cars are going slower and the chances of losing too many positions are small.

The Mercedes engineers moved quickly and called George and Kimi to the pits to switch from medium to hard tyres. And they took to the circuit in 3rd and 5th respectively, with rookie Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls) between them.

The Merdeces mechanics did an excellent job of changing the tires // PHOTO: Imago Images

Ferrari's decision not to pit also stunned Hamilton, who radioed that “At least one of us should have come in”.

On lap 15, when the race resumed under normal conditions, Hamilton received a message that puzzled him: “Russell is 10 seconds behind”. To which Lewis reacted in surprise: “How just 10 seconds?!” On lap 16, Leclerc was leading, with Hamilton 1.7 seconds behind and Russell 11.1 seconds behind.

Therefore, Russell's change during the VSC made him gain 9 seconds. How? On average, at Albert Park, 19 seconds are lost when passing through the pits. Had he entered under normal race conditions, Russell would have finished 20 seconds behind Leclerc. So, he had only 11 to recover.

A second VSC came on laps 18-19, but the Ferrari drivers could not enter then because the pit lane was closed, this because Bottas' car (Cadillac) had remained in that area.

Mercedes quickly closed the gap on Ferrari

With new tires and fresh air in front, but also with a much more powerful engine, Russell “flew” around the circuit in the Mercedes rocket. On lap 25, when called to the pits, his Leclerc was just 4.7 seconds ahead of Russell. After pitting, the Monegasque from Ferrari returned to the track in 4th place, but extremely far from Mercedes.

Lap 28, with 30 laps to go, saw Russell return to first place as he effortlessly passed Hamilton. And from here, everything went perfectly for Mercedes, the distance from the competitors being impossible to reduce.

After Hamilton's entry to switch to new tyres, the standings looked like this:

1. George Russell

2. Kimi Antonelli +6.8 seconds

3. Charles Leclerc + 7.8 seconds

4. Lewis Hamilton + 6.2 seconds

How have things changed? By lap 13, Russell was one second behind Leclerc. After another 17 laps, the Briton had a lead of 14.6 seconds. An incredible win due to a timely pit stop.

From here on, Russell and Antonelli drove with only two simple ideas in their heads: make no mistakes and take care of the tires. And it worked out perfectly for them. They crossed the finish line comfortably clear of their rivals, with Mercedes announcing themselves as the strongest team at this start of the season.

MP Ranking of Australia

1. George Russell
2. Kimi Antonelli
3. Charles Leclerc
4. Lewis Hamilton
5. Landon Norris
6. Max Verstappen
7. Oliver Bearman
8. Arvid Lindblad
9. Gabriel Bortoleto
10. Pierre Gasly
11. Esteban Ocon
12. Alexander Albon
13. Liam Lawson
14. Franco Colapinto
15. Carlos Sainz
16. Sergio Perez
17. Lance Stroll
18. Fernando Alonso – abandoned
19. Valtteri Bottas – abandonment
20. Isack Hadjar – dropout
21. Oscar Piastri – did not start
22. Nico Hulkenberg – did not start

It was quite complicated. Honestly, at the start, none of us knew what to expect in terms of the fights and the energy. With overtaking, it becomes even more difficult. You never know when your battery will die on the straights, so there were huge speed differences. It was quite challenging, but I'm glad that after the fight I came out on top. Unfortunately that didn't help us for the rest of the race, but it was a fun first part of the race. 3rd place was the best I could get today. I don't think we would have won if we had stopped under VSC. It looked like Mercedes had a bit more speed than us today, but maybe not as much as we saw yesterday. So that's good, but I don't think we would have won.

– Charles Leclerc

I'm really proud of the team. He did a fantastic job building this car. Of course, we are not as fast as Mercedes and we have work to do, but we are in the fight. Throughout the weekend I was very strong. Qualifying didn't show our real pace. I had a few problems there that pushed me further back. Today nobody knew what the real pace of everything would be, but I felt good from the start. There are many positives, but also a lot of work to catch up with Mercedes, but it is not impossible. I think we can close the gap. It won't be easy, we have a lot of work to do because the difference is significant, especially on one lap.

– Lewis Hamilton

Overall ranking of pilots

1. George Russell – 25 points
2. Kimi Antonelli – 18
3. Charles Leclerc – 15
4. Lewis Hamilton – 12
5. Landon Norris – 10 points
6. Max Verstappen – 8 points
7. Oliver Bearman – 6 points
8. Arvid Lindblad – 4 points
9. Gabriel Bortoleto – 2 points
10. Pierre Gasly – 1 point
11. Esteban Ocon – 0 points
12. Alexander Albon – 0 points
13. Liam Lawson – 0 points
14. Franco Colapinto – 0 points
15. Carlos Sainz – 0 points
16. Sergio Perez – 0 points
17. Isack Hadjar – 0 points
18. Oscar Piastri – 0 points
19. Nico Hulkenberg – 0 points
20. Fernando Alonso – 0 points
21. Valtteri Bottas – 0 points
22. Lance Stroll – 0 points

General ranking of builders

1. Mercedes – 43 points
2. Ferrari – 27 points
3. McLaren – 10 points
4. Red Bull – 8 points
5. Haas – 6 points
6. Racing Bulls – 4 points
7. Audi – 2 points
8. Alpine – 1 point
9. Williams – 0 points
10. Cadillac – 0 points
11. Aston Martin – 0 points