AUSTRALIA OPENER BRINGS NEW FRONT-RUNNERS
29 October 2022
by HM Gillard
To nobody’s surprise, it was Audi who locked out the front row in Australia, with Lotterer ahead of Mortara. Grala put in a fantastic debut qualifying to take third, with Piquet 4th, Bublewicz 5th, Aslan 8th and the reigning champion Said down in 12th.
Lotterer led away off the start, with the big gainer in the top 10 being Alexander Rossi. Alain Prost made up three places on his return, before quickly dispatching new team-mate Thomas Li. Carlin and Andretti had the worst pace early in the race, and provided hindrance to the Renault’s and Aslan as they carved through the field. Prost made early gains, and was unbothered by the slower cars, while Li was first stuck behind Said, and then engaged in a long battle with Rossi, who was unwilling to allow Li through without ridiculous use of KERS, ending Rossi’s chance of points.
Top 8 on the Grid
Top 8 on the Grid
Up front, Lotterer had pulled away as Mortara and Grala were unable to match his pace. This saw a queue of Bublewicz, Dupont, Aslan and, amazingly, Prost form up behind them. Grala was quickly dispatched by all five, along with Li and Rossi, while Aslan passed his team-mate and hunted down Bublewicz to claim second. Aslan cut down Lotterer’s lead from 2.2 seconds to 0.5 seconds in ten laps, when the pair pitted. This was triggered by Li, who was stuck behind Prost with no prospect of moving forward, and at risk from behind due to his KERS deficit. As a result, Li pitted on lap 27, and made very little gain in terms of pace. Despite this, the remainder of the field all pitted with the exception of Woldi.
Bublewicz now led Kowalska by ten seconds with a 22 second gap to Aslan. At first, the stoppers only closed by just over half a second a lap - not a quick enough pace. But then, Woldi hit the cliff, and started losing over a second per lap to the chasing pack. Kowalska was overtaken first, although she did her best to hold the pack up for her team-mate, using boost extensively against Aslan and Lotterer, but being less defensive to the chasing Renault’s allowing them to close up.
Aslan caught Bublewicz with five laps to go, and the Season 13 champion did as much as he could to defend with his KERS, but just couldn’t match Aslan. However, he managed to stay ahead of Lotterer and Prost until the final lap, when the pair’s KERS advantage allowed them to pass the struggling Woldi car to claim the final places on the podium.
Victory for Aslan sees him lead a championship for the third time in his career, with Prost second and Lotterer third. Bublewicz held onto fourth on a strategy that could have won the race for early leader Lotterer. Li managed to claim 5th place ahead of Dupont, with Grala, Said and Mortara finishing in formation behind. Kowalska held on to the final point despite not pitting, ahead of Aston Martin, who lost out in the early traffic and were too heavy throughout the race.
Race Result
Drivers' Championship
Constructors' Championship
Race Result