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With a few notable exceptions, most drivers converged on the same strategy for the Australian Grand Prix.

However, one driver opted for a bold strategy that offered great rewards and could inspire others to try the same in future races.

For the first time in four years, Pirelli has brought a non-consecutive selection of tire compounds to a race: the C2 (hard), C3 (medium) and C5 (soft). The latter was too soft to consider using it for a normal length stint.

Most riders preferred to start with the medium tire. There were two strong incentives to follow this path.

The hard tire takes longer to warm up, and is therefore a disadvantage at the start. None of the drivers who started there gained places in the first lap.

Additionally, in a race where safety car periods are likely, teams want to be able to take advantage of any “under yellow” pit opportunities in order to save time. If the safety car comes out early, drivers starting on medium can switch to hard, race to the end and meet the need to run two different tire compounds. But those who start with the hard ones may not be able to get the mids to last long enough for it to work.

The few who opted to go hard were largely those who had qualified ‘out of position’, such as fifth-row occupants Carlos Sainz Jnr and Fernando Alonso. But it didn’t pay off for either of them.

Sainz had more problems with his steering wheel at the start, fell into anti-stall and lost five places. Alonso stayed out during the first safety car period, was able to make his pit stop during a later virtual safety car period, but still lost several places. He then suffered severe tire degradation as he raced behind other cars and had to stop again.

However, one driver has made hard tire starts pay off big time: Alexander Albon. He started last on a series of hard runs and couldn’t stop until the final lap of the race.

He was seventh at the time and had a 19.4-second lead over 11th-placed Zhou Guanyu. That should have been enough for him to comfortably enter and exit the pits in front of him. However, his pit stop was the second slowest of the race, with his team losing time with a stuck left front wheel.

Nonetheless, Albon came out of the pits slightly ahead of the Alfa Romeo and used his soft tire set to edge his rival to the line. It was the only lap a rider did the entire race on a C5 set.

Race winner Charles Leclerc set the fastest lap of the final lap, earning the bonus point. It was a good thing he did, because otherwise he would have lost his fastest lap to Alonso, who also reeled off a fast lap at the end on his cooler middle rubber.

Leclerc’s fastest lap underlined Ferrari’s best performance so far this year. Even before Max Verstappen emerged with a problem with his fuel system, Red Bull had repeatedly fallen back on Ferrari, unable to handle their tires as well as their rivals. After the first Safety Car period, Verstappen lost eight seconds to Leclerc in just 11 laps.

After two races where the leading teams clashed at a tight pace, the lack of performance and reliability of Red Bull in Australia will sound the alarm in Milton Keynes.

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2022 Australian Grand Prix lap table

The positions of each driver at each lap. Click the name to highlight it, right click to reset. Switch the drivers using the commands below:

2022 Australian Grand Prix Race Table

The gaps between each driver on each lap compared to the average lap time of the leader. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to move, and right-click to reset. Switch the drivers using the commands below:

2022 Australian Grand Prix lap time

All drivers’ lap times (in seconds, excluding very slow laps). Scroll to zoom, drag to move and switch between pilots using the command below:

2022 Australian Grand Prix best laps

The fastest lap of each driver:

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2022 Australian Grand Prix tire strategies

The tire strategies of each driver:

2022 Australian Grand Prix Pit Stop Times

How long did each driver’s pit stops last:

Australian Grand Prix 2022

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