It was a chaotic opening round of the WF1 championship in Albert Park. Williams' Michelle Matheson took a comfortable pole position and was able to dominate most of the race until tyre strategies were comprised for half of the grid as a result of multiple race-delaying incidents, resulting in a late round of pit stops by herself and a handful of other drivers shook up the order drastically for the final several laps.
The chaotic tone of the race was established on the opening lap when Karla Hoffman and Chantal Roca both locked up in separate incidents and dropped to 21st and 22nd respectively. Roca would then struggle to make up places while Hoffman quickly started to assert her superior pace over the backmarkers and began making up places quickly.
After only three more laps, the red flag was waved after the Haas of Ella Lankinen made a risky move against Karla Hoffman as she was slicing back through the pecking order, resulting in both drivers damaging their cars beyond repair and stopping on track. The RB of Gabriela Ribeiro had been collected in the incident as well, but she was able to keep her car going and carry on.
Only six laps after the red flag caused by the Hoffman and Lankinen clash, Ferrari's Kiyoko Nakamura ran into the rear of the Red Bull of Anjali Aslam. Nakamura's Ferrari was crippled and retired from the race, while Aslam was able to limp her car back to the pits to be retired while a safety car was deployed.
Throughout all race delaying incidents, Michelle Matheson had maintained her lead and regularly fended off attacks from the RB of Jackie Warner and Sauber of Lina Willems. With pit stop strategies being disrupted several times throughout the race, drivers who had found themselves in point scoring positions late into the race had to make stops for fresh tyres, allowing those who had not drastically altered their strategies after the earlier red flag and safety car to take advantage of this and carry on with old tyres that were able to hang on long enough to fend off any attack from those on fresher tyres.
As a result, Mercedes' Olivia Jones was able to cross the line in first position followed by Naomi Jones for McLaren, both who had been eliminated in Q1 during qualifying. Mia Moreno, who had maintained a top five presence throughout the entire race, came home to finish third for Mercedes.
Team Lotus' Jessica Dodson, Aston Martin's Kimberley Taylor, and Red Bull's Katie Mulford also ran strong races, having all been eliminated in Q2 only to run consistent strategies throughout the race that saw them all pick up points after the chequered flag was waved. Emily Tan, who had started in last place, narrowly missed out on the points after running in the top ten for most of the second half of the race, eventually finishing in tenth and two positions outside of the points.
Olivia Gaines, the driver of the day for the Australian Grand Prix, is off to an unexpected and surprise lead in the championship after her dismal showing in qualifying. Mercedes opens things with a strong first place in the constructors championship, following closely by McLaren while Team Lotus is further back in third.
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