Melbourne: Sunday
Grid: Hamilton; Bottas; Verstappen; Gasly; Riccardo; Lando; Aitken; Leclerc; Perez; Ilott; Russell; Sainz; Hunt; Tsunoda; Alonso; Stroll; Ocon; Vettel; Latifi; Raikkonen; Schumacher; Mazepin
After a depressing knock out in qualifying the team was looking to have a better race day. The team knew that they could run the softs longer then all the other teams could. This should have been an advantage but they opted to be a bit more aggressive.
Since the day was warmer then expected most teams were expected to do a 2 stop from softs to 2 sets of mediums. However, Jaguar Racing decided to start on the hard compound and go nearly the entire race before switching to the softs. It was a gamble however as the hards were notoriously hard to get up to temperature.
As the grid left for the formation lap, the drivers were swerving around the track trying to get their tires up to the proper operation window. Hunt showed how hard it was to warm up his tires by understeering wide at the final corner.
(At the grid)
Hunt was nervous. He had started so many races here almost all of them from front, never at the back. Yet, here he was, starting his F1 career in P13. Time seemed to slow as the five red lights appeared one by one. He held his clutch down and the light went out. He let go of the pedal as car roared up the gears.
He snapped his wheel to the right as the car infront of him had a horrendous start. Into turn one Hunt was cautious on the brakes not wanting to pile drive someone. As he exited turn one he risked quick peek into his mirrors to see a car facing the wrong way. Judging from the color of the rear wing, it looked like a Haas or a Alfa Romeo.
He glanced back forward opened up his radio.
Hunt: Update on the position?
Engineer: P10. Good start next car ahead is the Red Bull of Perez 0.7 ahead. George is in P8.
Hunt: Copy
With the help of DRS Hunt shrunk the gap to Perez from 0.7 to 0.3. Hunt was pretty much pushing Perez through ever corner, but he just couldn't get past him. Finally going to lap 5 down the main straight Hunt deployed everything he had. DRS open, ERS deploying, he sent it down the inside of turn one forcing Perez wide. However Perez wasn't just gonna give up the position, exiting turn 1 and entering turn 2, he turned in sharper and pulled a switchback move on Hunt. Coming out of the corner Hunt squeezed him right to the wall before going back to the proper racing line.
Entering turn 4 the two were side-by-side, Hunt on the outside, Perez on the inside. Into turn 4 Hunt broke early and turned in, trying a switchback and had half his car next the Perez, but exiting turn 5 Hunt had a oversteer moment and fell back from him.
2 laps after Hunt's failed scrap with Perez, Hunt was back, pressuring him in to ever corner and then into turn 15 the pressure was to much and Perez locked up going in to deep and allowed Hunt to slip through.
Hunt wasn't the only one making moves though. During the fight between Perez and Hunt, Russell had passed both Leclerc and Aitken and was up into P7.
Engineer: Good Overtake! Next cars ahead is Aitken and Leclerc 1.2 and 1.3 ahead respectively, head down keep pushing.
Hunt: Where is George?
Engineer: He is in P7 ahead of Aitken and Leclerc.
Heading towards turn 3's brake zone Russell lined up a pass on Lando and sent it down the inside of Lando and tired to shut the door on Lando. However, going into turn 4 but Lando managed to stick his nose in and forced Russell to leave the space. Then on the exit of turn 4, the 2 drivers drag raced through the small turn that was turn 5 and then went side by side into turn 6. The Jaguar however got the better exit of the two and started to pull away from the McLaren.
As Hunt was lining up an overtake on Leclerc down the main straight, the yellow flag signal popped up on to his wheel display. Soon after, his engineer came in to the radio
Engineer: Someone's had a incident into turn one.
As it turned out Aitken had locked up into the brake zone of turn one and rear-ended Lando . Causing Lando to spin of into the gravel and beach his car, while Aitken lost his front wing. The VSC was deployed as the crew had to remove Lando from the Circuit.
Lando: Come on! What was he thinking! I'm beached! Race over!
Lando's Engineer: Its ok man there's still the rest of the season.
Aitken: What was that! I touched the pedal and it instantly locked up! The front wing is broken.
Aitkens Engineer: Copy. Box in this lap.
After the scuffle between Aitken and Lando, Hunt was promoted from P9 to P7. As the lap continued on, both Russell and Riccardo pit and Hunt was pushed farther up into P5.
As the end of the VSC Hunt tried to line up a pass on Leclerc but as the pack started to speed up. Wheel spin caught him out and he nearly put his car into Leclerc's sidepod.
Russell on the other hand, had pitted for mediums during the VSC so that he could drive the same distance on mediums instead of the hards.
As the lap came to an end, Hunt was pressuring Leclerc into turn 14 and then the time came, as Leclerc locked up and Hunt took his chance. He shot his car into the corner and the drivers rammed tires. Leclerc got 2019 Austrian Grand Prix PTSD and ran wide out of 14 but came back on track still ahead of Hunt.
Hunt, not ready to give up, sent it back around the outside of Leclerc in turn 15 and then squeezed Leclerc on the inside. Leclerc got on the curb and his rear end stepped out, allowing Hunt through.
Into the pits came Hunt. He pulled into the pit box and off came the old tires and on came the new ones. The car was dropped off its jacks and then total time idle was a 2.346. He came out in P12 right into a fight in-between Ocon and Vettel.
Hunt: Ahhh! Not Ideal!!
Engineer: Its ok. You'll get past him.
On cue, a gap opened up and Hunt took the chance, shooting it up the inside of the two drivers.
Hunt: YES!
Engineer: Good Job next car ahead is Stroll, 5.890 ahead. Russell is in P7.
Down the back curve Hunt was closing up to Stroll. With ERS deploying he passed Stroll down the inside. Yet the battle wasn't over yet. As Hunt tried to pull ahead of Stroll, the Aston Martin got DRS and started to pull back ahead of Hunt.
As the two cars roared down, sided by side. it was a proper game of chicken as the two went side by side into turn 13. Stroll was the first to get on the brakes. Hunt shot ahead but little did he know, Stroll had something else in mine. As Hunt closed up to Sainz in P8, Stroll was using Hunt as a kind of horse. Stroll stayed in DRS range and as Hunt was closing up Sainz, Stroll was closing up to Hunt.
As Sainz approached turn 15, he saw Hunt in his mirror and went defensive to the inside forcing Hunt to go to the outside. Hunt tried it to the outside, he got his nose there but Sainz squeezed him out. Meanwhile Stroll watched the two fight while saving fuel.
As Hunt again tried to overtake Sainz at 14 he caught Sainz napping and shoved him wide. However, Stroll decided that this was the best time to strike. As Hunt went into turn 15, Stroll deployed all the ERS and Fuel he had. Noticing the charging Aston Martin. Hunt went defensive to the inside but couldn't get there fast enough.
Also Sainz saw his chance. He pushed it to the outside, and it was 3 wide into turn 15, Hunt ahead of Stroll ahead of Sainz. Sainz was squeezed off track by Hunt and Hunt took the inside line. Coming out of Turn 16 Hunt squeezed out Stroll and with the help of DRS he pulled away and as he crossed the line it was P8.
Russell was P7 and Hunt was P8. 10 points total. His engineer came in, ecstatic.
Engineer: (Towards Hunt) P8! P8! Great Job!!! YES!
Hunt: WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YES BOIIIIS!!
Engineer: Good Job Hunt!!!
Engineer: (Towards Russell): YES! Fantastic George. Wonderful Job!
GRussell: YES! WOOHOO! THATS HOW WE RACE!
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Race Results
1: Hamilton
2: Verstappen
3: Bottas
4: Perez
5: Gasly
6: Tsunoda
7: Russell
8: Hunt
9: Stroll
10: Sainz
11: Vettel
12: Ocon
13: Leclerc
14: Riccardo
15: Latifi
16: Alonso
17: Ilott
18: Raikkonen
19: Aitken
20: Schumacher
21: Mazepin
22: Lando
(uhhh I think I got everyone, do tell me if there's a repeated name.)