Grand Prix LIVE updates: F1 action back at Melbourne after three-year wait

04/10/2022

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What’s behind the F1 changes?

It’s the most seismic shift to F1’s rule book since the ’80s. What’s different – and which drivers will benefit most?

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Photos: Massive crowd on way to Albert Park

Crowds gather at the gate.Credit:Paul Jeffers

See more photos from race day Sunday, HERE

Oh, what a sight …

An aerial view of Albert Park and the Melbourne skyline.Credit:Getty Images

A battle for Mercedes

Kevin Magnussen called it as he saw it. The Danish driver for the Haas Formula One team was reflecting on his ninth-place result in last month’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, pausing to glance back to those who finished behind him, and shrugged.

“[Lewis] Hamilton … was just not that fast,” Magnussen said.

Hamilton was just not that fast? It’s a six-word sentence that has barely been uttered since 2014, when Mercedes used F1’s shift to 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid engines as a springboard to unleash an unprecedented era of dominance over the sport. In eight years, the German giant won 111 of 160 races and all eight constructors’ championships, Hamilton annexing six of the eight drivers’ crowns.

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain.Credit:Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Ricciardo optimistic Albert Park will launch his season

For just the third time in its 25-year tenure on the Formula One calendar, Melbourne didn’t play host to the season-opening Grand Prix in 2022. But for Daniel Ricciardo, Albert Park may well signal the start of a campaign that, until now, has barely got out of first gear.

The McLaren driver missed the entirety of the crucial final pre-season test in Bahrain after a bout of COVID-19, and finished an anonymous season-opening race at the same Sakhir circuit in 14th, McLaren beset with brake issues in the baking Bahraini desert.

“It could have maybe been a little better but I’m generally satisfied because it’s the first [top 10] of the year,” Ricciardo said after his best qualifying performance at home since 2015.

Hello motorsport fans

Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog.

The F1 circus is back and up and going in Melbourne for the first time in 37 months, but who’s counting. It’s sort of a two-year break between grand prix in Australia but the circumstances in 2020 can’t be forgotten.

The race two years ago was unforgettably cancelled just two days before race day due to health measures imposed by the Victorian government due to the looming COVID-19 pandemic. What a two-year period it has been since.

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