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Australian Grand Prix LIVE: Lewis Hamilton taking risk as Verstappen starts behind Leclerc

Published

3 years ago

April 10, 2022

Charles Leclerc will be looking to clinch his second victory of the new year ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton when the five red lights go out to start today’s Australian Grand Prix. The Ferrari man took the chequered flag at the season-opening race in Bahrain but was beaten by Verstappen at the last time of asking in Saudi Arabia and will be desperate to enact revenge over the course of this morning’s 58-lap event on the streets of Melbourne.

Leclerc managed to put his car on pole position ahead of second-placed Verstappen with a scintillating lap at the end of yesterday’s qualifying session. He ended up three-tenths of a second clear of his Red Bull rival, who starts ahead of Sergio Perez and Lando Norris in third and fourth respectively.

Meanwhile, Hamilton will be hoping to force his way into contention for a top-three finish after securing a respectable fifth-placed grid slot after last month’s disastrous showing in Saudi Arabia. The seven-time champion, who currently has a heavier car than fellow Mercedes driver George Russell due to a new data-collecting tool on his chassis, still remains some way off the pace of the leaders with the Silver Arrows having failed to meet their own lofty standards over the course of the new campaign to date.

How to watch F1 live streams for FREE in 2022

If you’re lucky enough to live in the Austria or Luxembourg then you can look forward to FREE F1 live streams throughout 2022.

That’s because the free-to-air RTL Zwee(opens in new tab) in Luxembourg will be showing every race, while ServusTV(opens in new tab) and ORF(opens in new tab) will share the rights in Austria. For the Australian Grand Prix only, meanwhile, 10play(opens in new tab) will also have a free live stream of every session of the race.

But what if you’re usually based in one of those countries but aren’t at home for a particular F1 live stream? Maybe you’re on holiday and don’t want to spend money on pay TV in another country, when you’d usually be able to watch for free at home?

Don’t worry — you can watch it via a VPN instead. We’ll show you how to do that below.

F1 LIVE STREAMS AROUND THE WORLD

How to watch the 2022 F1 live streams from anywhere with a VPN

It’s natural that you might want to watch the 2022 F1 live streams from your home country, but what if you’re not there when the race is on?

Look no further than a VPN, or virtual private network. A VPN makes it look as if you’re surfing the web from your home country, rather than the one you’re in. That means you can access the streaming services you already pay for, from anywhere on Earth. Or anywhere that has an internet connection, at least.

For instance, an Australian who’s currently in the U.S. could watch the F1 live streams on 10play, even though they’re not in Australia.

They’re totally legal, inexpensive and easy to use. We’ve tested lots of the best VPN services and our favorite right now is ExpressVPN(opens in new tab). It’s fast, works on loads of devices and even offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Using a VPN is incredibly simple.

1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we’ve said, ExpressVPN(opens in new tab) is our favorite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance if you’re in the U.S. and want to view an Australian service, you’d select Australia from the list.

3. Sit back and enjoy the action. Head to 10play or another website and watch the race.

How to watch F1 live streams in the US

Every F1 live stream this season will be shown on ESPN, with coverage spread across the various ESPN channels. Note, though, that there’ll also be FREE coverage on ABC of the United States Grands Prix in Miami and Austin, and the Mexican Grand Prix.

There are several ways you can access ESPN — and two of them are among our picks for the best streaming services.

ESPN is available through most cable packages as well as cable TV replacement services, including Sling TV, Fubo.TV, YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV.

As well as being available through your cable service, you can also stream the race via the ESPN app, or on the Watch section of ESPN’s website. However, you’ll need to authenticate with your satellite, cable or live TV provider credentials to watch any sessions.

If you don’t want to pay for live ESPN in some fashion or another, your best alternative is F1 TV Pro(opens in new tab). This is F1’s own official F1 live stream service, and as with ESPN’s own coverage, it uses the feed from Sky Sports F1.

F1 TV Pro costs $10 per month or $80 for the season, which is much better value considering there are 22 races this year. Plus you also get Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup races, and F1’s archive of classic Grands Prix.

And remember, if you’re usually based in the U.S. but aren’t there at the moment, you can still watch the services you already subscribe to via a VPN such as ExpressVPN(opens in new tab) — meaning you can view an F1 live stream from anywhere in the world.

Follow CityNews’ live updates from the Australian Grand Prix below.

Express Sport is on hand to provide live updates from this year's Australian Grand Prix

KEY EVENTS

Good morning05:00

in 8 hours06:16 Archie Griggs

Safety car ends – Leclerc stays ahead

The safety car is called back into the pit lane at the end of lap six before Charles Leclerc successfully manages to hold his advantage at the restart.

The Ferrari man looked far quicker than Max Verstappen along the home straight and will now be tasked with pulling away from his Red Bull rival over the next few laps.

in 8 hours06:07 Archie Griggs

Safety car

Carlos Sainz’s race already looks to be over!

The Spaniard beaches his Ferrari in the gravel at Turn 10 and is unable to get back up and running.

The safety car is quickly deployed, with Charles Leclerc still leading the way ahead of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

in 8 hours06:04 Archie Griggs

LIGHTS OUT! Leclerc holds lead

Charles Leclerc gets a brilliant start and manages to keep Max Verstappen at bay into Turn One!

Lewis Hamilton also starts well and manages to get up into third place after passing Lando Norris and Sergio Perez.

Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz appears to be struggling for pace on the hard tyres and is all the way down in 14th!

in 8 hours06:00 Archie Griggs

Here we go

The formation lap is underway and we’re just seconds out in Melbourne…

in 8 hours05:50 Archie Griggs

Starting grid

Here’s a final reminder of your starting order ahead of today’s race.

Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo will be looking to secure a points-paying finish from seventh on the grid, while Carlos Sainz will have plenty of work to do to earn a spot on the podium after only managing to put his Ferrari in ninth.

We’re just 10 minutes away from the start of the formation lap and the drivers are strapping themselves in and getting ready to go.

in 7 hours05:40 Archie Griggs

Leclerc out to finish the job

Charles Leclerc has insisted that he is determined to convert pole position into his second Grand Prix victory of the new year by holding off the threat of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez from the word go.

“I am feeling good, obviously I am extremely happy to be starting on pole today,” said the Ferrari driver.

“It is going to be a tricky race as always but we have had the pace until now so now we just need to finish the job. We have got the pace.

“It is a bit difficult because with Max and Checo, I am a bit on my own without Carlos because he got unlucky yesterday but hopefully he can come back soon and have a good race from there.”

in 7 hours05:30

Hamilton: Naturally gutted

Lewis Hamilton was unable to hide his frustrations over the pace of his Mercedes car after he was forced to settle for a fifth-placed finish at the end of Q3.

However, the 37-year-old also insisted that slow progress is being made to put things right after a hugely difficult start to the campaign on all fronts for the Silver Arrows.

“I feel like my lap, I feel like there was a little more in the car so that is a positive,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.

“I am also naturally gutted that I wasn’t able to extract that little bit but the problem is when you push that car a little bit more she is quite spiteful, she is like a viper or like a rattlesnake, you never know.”

in 7 hours05:20 Archie Griggs

Alonso’s sore thumbs

Fernando Alonso has revealed that he will be taking part in today’s race with injured thumbs due to the impact of his crash towards the end of qualifying.

The Spaniard was hit with a gearbox issue at Turn 13 and was unable to prevent his Alpine car from sliding off the track and slamming into the barriers at the edge of the circuit.

“I’m fine,” said the Spaniard. “Obviously yesterday I held the steering until the last moment before the crash, just to save the front wing.

“But I had no power steering at that moment, we had nothing. It was an extension of the thumbs, so it is a little bit painful now, but it’s going to be OK for the race.”

Alonso was unable to prevent his brush with the barriers in Q3

Alonso was unable to prevent his brush with the barriers in Q3 (Image: GETTY)

in 7 hours05:10 Archie Griggs

Qualifying recap

Charles Leclerc grabbed his second pole position of the new season with a scintillating lap at the end of Saturday’s qualifying session.

The Ferrari man was 0.286 seconds clear of Max Verstappen at the top of the order, with Sergio Perez in third and Lewis Hamilton down in fifth.

However, Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz only managed to complete one Q3 lap on cold tyres and will start today’s race from ninth on the grid.

The session was also disrupted by two red-flag periods, with Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi clipping each other in Q1 before Fernando Alonso collided with the barriers on his flying lap towards the end of Q3.

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