McLaren look like having their best car in years, Hamilton’s learning curve at Ferrari and mixed report cards for rookies

Having played down a strong performance in testing, there was no way to disguise reality at the Australian Grand Prix. During practice the field still looked close, indeed right through the first two sessions in qualifying but when it really mattered in Q3, McLaren were off the leash. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri charged, the former almost four-tenths up on nearest challenger Max Verstappen and almost half a second from fourth-placed George Russell. An age. Perhaps we just removed more sandbags than everyone else was Piastri’s assessment. In which case the MCL39 must have been carrying a skip-load such was their advantage with the wick turned up.