GP Australia: Times, standings, track info, weather forecast

Australian Grand Prix times

Due to the enormous distance, there is quite a time difference with Melbourne, which means that you have to get up early in front of the TV here in the Netherlands next weekend. Qualifying is Saturday morning from 8:00 am. and the race even starts at 7am on Sunday. The real those hards who also want to see all training sessions live, even have to work at night. All times listed below.

Championship standings

Every point can ultimately make the difference and with that in mind, Max Verstappen managed to win the fastest race lap in Saudi Arabia at the last minute. As a result, he is still in first place in the championship with one point difference, just above teammate Sergio Pérez. With the strong start to the season, the two Red Bull drivers immediately make a bit of a gap to the rest. Fernando Alonso holds third place, who would have expected that last winter?

The team championship is actually already especially interesting behind the number 1. Red Bull Racing already took a nice lead with two 1-2s in a row and an almost unbeatable looking car, behind that it is a lot more exciting. The season start for McLaren is painful. The team that has played a significant role in midfield in recent years has not yet taken any points. 2023 has also started quite badly for AlphaTauri. A disappointment for Nyck de Vries.

Circuit

Albert Park hosted the first Grand Prix of the season for years, but that has not been the case since corona. In 2020, the GP was canceled at the last minute due to the rise of the virus and it could not continue in 2021 due to corona. Last year, the Australian GP returned to the calendar. The Albert Park Circuit, as the name suggests, is located in Melbourne’s Albert Park. Every year the streets around the lake in the park are transformed into an F1 circuit. Regular traffic is only allowed to drive 40 km/h on most of the roads that are part of the circuit. Quite a difference with the speeds that the F1 cars reach.

The circuit is quite winding, but still quite fast. There is only one long straight and it runs past start/finish. That is also the first DRS zone, the second follows shortly afterwards from Turn 2 to Turn 3. Halfway through the circuit, the drivers encounter another DRS zone in the fast corner towards Turn 9. Between Turn 10 and Turn 11 is the fourth DRS -zone.

The fastest race lap on the current layout (which is only one GP old) is held by Charles Leclerc. He drove around the track in 1:20.260 during the race last year. He also won the race. The Monegask had also managed to take pole position in qualifying with a lap time of 1:17.868. Coming Sunday, 58 laps of racing are scheduled on the 5.28 km long circuit. Good for a total race distance of over 306 km.

Weather forecast

It is autumn in Australia, but that does not mean that the weather is also bad in Melbourne. It is often still quite sunny around this time of the year and even now precipitation does not seem to play a major role. On Friday there is still a chance of rain and it is also a bit chilly with about 16 degrees, on Saturday and Sunday there is dry weather and about 20 degrees on the cards.