Mayhem down under: Australian Grand Prix review
Start of Australian Grand Prix (Image: Getty Images)
The Australian Grand Prix will undoubtedly go down in motorsports history as one of the most chaotic races ever held. With three red flags, numerous safety cars, and uncountable amounts of carnage, the race had it all.
Max Verstappen lined up P1, with Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton behind in P2 and P3 respectively. As the lights went out, Russell managed to overtake Verstappen before they even got past turn one. Hamilton followed suit and overtook Verstappen into turn three, making it the first Mercedes one-two of the season.
During the beginning three turns of lap one, Charles Leclerc was hit and spun out of the race, making him the first retirement of a long race session.
Alex Albon, unfortunately, crashed on lap nine which caused the first safety car of the race. Mercedes pitted Russell under the safety car in hopes of undercutting Hamilton and Verstappen and securing his lead. However, the FIA decided that the debris from the crash was too severe and brought out the first red flag of the session.
Under the red flag, every driver and team carried out their one obligated pit stop which unfortunately meant that Russell would stay P7, having to fight his way back to the front. Hamilton started the restart off in first and managed to keep Verstappen behind for two laps until the Red Bull obtained DRS and overtook the Mercedes.
Russell managed to fight back from seventh and made his way up to fourth before suffering a car problem which resulted in him retiring from the race, resulting in a virtual safety car. Hamilton had to fight to secure his second place as Spaniards Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz were in hot pursuit, followed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll.
Gasly was set to finish the race in P5, the highest finish for him and any team outside the top four in the 2023 season. All the drivers were set in their position except Sergio Perez, who was recovering from an accident in qualifying and starting the race last. The Mexican was on a charge and at this point of the race, was up to P7.
However, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen contacted the wall at the exit of turn two, resulting in him losing his rear wheel and causing massive debris to be spread throughout the track; the second red flag followed.
At the second race restart, Verstappen and Hamilton managed to keep the rest of the grid behind and avoid the chaos that followed. Sainz hit the rear tyre of fellow countryman Alonso which caused Gasly to take avoiding action but crashed into his teammate Esteban Ocon on re-entry. Both drivers sustained massive damage to their cars resulting in a double DNF for the French team.
Logan Sargeant collided with fellow rookie Nyck De Vries and both retired from the race while Stroll had his own issues but managed to re-join the track safely. This concluded with the final and last red flag.
During the red fag, there was confusion as to how the race would proceed. A decision was made on how the race would continue and the FIA decided to finish the race behind a safety car in the order cars started the last restart.
Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso on the podium after Australian Grand Prix (Image: Getty Images)
Verstappen claimed his first-ever victory in Australia with Hamilton and Alonso completing the podium; Sainz was fourth but was handed a five-second penalty for his collision with Alonso and as everyone was behind the safety car, Sainz was regulated to 12th while everyone behind was promoted one place.
Stroll claimed fourth, Perez fought back to fifth and Lando Norris, Nico Hulkenberg, Oscar Piastri, and Zhou Guanyu completed the top ten.
Valtteri Bottas and Sainz claimed the last two positions on the grid as six cars retired throughout the Grand Prix.
Hometown favourite Piastri and Brit Norris manage to claim McLaren’s first points of the season and because of Alpine’s incident, found themselves P5 in the constructors standings.
F1 now has a three-week break until the next race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, taking place on the 28-30 April when the first Sprint race of the season will commence.