Mercedes double in Melbourne
As per the script George Russell he won in Australia and Mercedes did a double. Charles Leclerc, who was sensational at the start and then tough in the battle with Russell for the lead, took care of shuffling the cards at the start of the race.
The Ferrari driver always responded blow for blow, remaining in the lead and the Mercedes wall therefore took advantage of it Virtual Safety Car due to the technical knockout of Isack Hadjar to stop both W17s which thus substantially overtook the Ferraris in the pits (Russell also did it on the track to the detriment of a Lewis Hamilton who was, however, now at the end of his stint).
Russell commented on the GP like this to the microphones of Sky Sports stressing that the VSC was probably decisive: “Qualifying was a surprise, but today the GP went as we expected, with the Ferraris very fast. Without Virtual Safety Car I don’t know if we would have won the race because the Ferraris were fast in the right places where they could attack. What if we win all the races this year? No, the competition is too strong. Today we all expected that we would dominate and that wasn’t the case.”
