Yahoo Autos Crash-Filled, Crazy Ending to Max Verstappen's F1 Australian Grand Prix Victory
Max Verstappen won the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. That bit was expected. The rest? It was wild and whacky at the start and at the end. Autoweek breaks down an at-times perplexing Australian Grand Prix.
A Chaotic Start, a Crazy Ending
Max Verstappen claimed victory in the Australian Grand Prix to open up a 15-point championship lead over teammate Sergio Perez. He recovered to fifth place after starting from the pit lane. Lewis Hamilton was second, Fernando Alonso was third. That’s the straightforward bit.
The race featured three standing starts, three red flags, a penultimate lap that descended into carnage, and a race result that took a while to understand, was protested, and eventually finalized.
The first red flag came on the eighth lap of 58, after Williams’ Alexander Albon binned it at Turn 6, dragging extensive debris and gravel onto the track. That prompted a standing restart, and a slow formation lap almost caused more chaos, with the field bunching through Turn 6. Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant had to dart into the gravel to avoid ploughing into opponents.
The race subsequently settled into a rhythm, with slow-starting Verstappen sweeping past Lewis Hamilton for the lead, after George Russell—who grabbed the lead at the initial start—was removed from contention due to an unlucky strategy before his engine failed.
Verstappen’s pace was such that he bolted two seconds clear of Hamilton in a single sector—an astonishing display of the RB19’s superiority—and was then merely managing his speed up front through a slightly more sedate middle chunk of the race. Hamilton held second, keeping a buffer to third-placed Alonso, while Carlos Sainz held fourth for Ferrari.
Drama in Closing Stages Has Stewards Scrambling
Haas driver Magnussen, running 12th, drifted wide through Turn 2 and clipped the wall, removing his rear-right tire from the wheel rim, and prompting the deployment of the Safety Car. Due to the debris it was decided to halt the race.
There were only two laps remaining—and for the standing restart the remaining drivers were on Soft tires.
Verstappen and Hamilton maintained their respective positions but behind them Sainz put third-placed Alonso into a spin at Turn 1, Lance Stroll inherited third but slid wide at Turn 3, the Alpine drivers collided with force and took each other out exiting Turn 2, Logan Sargeant rear-ended Nyck de Vries, while Sergio Perez also found the gravel.
The race was red-flagged again, on lap 57 of 58, meaning there was insufficient time for a green-flag restart (as Lap 58 would be a formation lap). The only certainty at that stage was Verstappen first, Hamilton second, but behind it was a mess.
Nico Hulkenberg sat fourth for Haas, Yuki Tsunoda was somehow fifth for AlphaTauri while Perez had been knocked down to the foot of the top 10.
It was decided that the race would be restarted with the final lap completed behind the Safety Car, but in the order before the final standing restart and ensuing mess. That restored the spun Alonso up to third, but Sainz was penalized for the incident and handed a five-second penalty, plunging him down the order because of how close the field was over the line.
Stroll was put back into fourth, in spite of sailing into the gravel, while it was a disaster for Alpine as Pierre Gasly, who was fifth before the Magnussen red flag, could not re-take his position due to terminally damaging his car in his clash with teammate Ocon.
Hulkenberg was shuffled back down to seventh place, where he had been before the restart, while Tsunoda was also demoted from fifth to tenth.
“My start today wasn’t amazing and then on lap one I was very careful as there was a lot on the line, I had a lot to lose and a lot to win,” said Verstappen. “But after that restart, we had good pace and a decent gap for the majority of the race. Perhaps we didn’t need all of those red flags today, it was frustrating, but everyone was safe and we won which is the most important thing. It’s my first win in Australia which feels really good.”
Leclerc’s Awful 2023 Gets Worse
Charles Leclerc won two of the opening trio of races in 2022 and in the other finished runner-up. This year he has retired from two of the opening trio of races and in the other finished seventh.
Leclerc has had a wretched start to the 2023 campaign and his woes continued in Australia, an event he utterly dominated 12 months ago. Leclerc started only seventh on the grid after conceding that he didn’t string together the qualifying session, and his race lasted only three turns.
When the pack bunched together at the tricky right-hander Leclerc got a tap from Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and wound up beached in the gravel. It was a racing incident but it leaves Leclerc with just six points after three races—the worst return for a Ferrari driver at this stage of a season since Felipe Massa in 2012. It hasn’t really been his fault, either.
Leclerc had an engine failure in Bahrain, the outcome of which left him relegated 10 places down the grid in Saudi Arabia, prior to his first-lap exit in Melbourne.
“I’m frustrated obviously,” he said. “It’s the worst ever start of a season, only six points in total, so frustrating.”
The title fight is but a distant aspiration and Leclerc stressed now “instead of thinking [about a] long-term target, just finishing a race without any penalties or issues or whatsoever is a priority, then we’ll take the momentum and see what’s possible.”
Williams Promise Goes Unrewarded
Williams’ slippery FW45 was rapid around the streets of Albert Park, particularly in the hands of Alexander Albon, who qualified a promising eighth. The Anglo-Thai was buzzing in the aftermath of Q3, explaining to Autoweek that Williams “is in a proper fight now—we’ve got the pace in the car” and was buoyed by the prospect of challenging for points every race.
That energy continued on Sunday – though came to a shuddering halt after just seven laps. Albon profited from drama elsewhere to slot into a strong sixth place and was showing encouraging pace when he dropped the FW45 through Turn 6 and cannoned into the barriers.
“When I lost the car, I was going through slower than the previous lap; I went wide on the corner before and spiked the tire temperatures, losing grip and going into the next corner a bit hot, so I think that’s what happened but we need to look at it,” he said. “With all the accidents, it was a good chance to score points this weekend, so I’m very sorry to the team. I’m disappointed, as we had a great car today and were really strong.”
Rookie team-mate Logan Sargeant had a quiet weekend in the sister car. The Floridian dropped out in Q1 and spent most of the race at the rear of the field before hitting de Vries at the final restart.
F1 Australian Grand Prix Results
Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 58 laps
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +0.179 second
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, +0.769
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, +3.082
Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +3.320
Lando Norris, McLaren, +3.701
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, +4.939
Oscar Piastri, McLaren, +5.382
Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo, +5.713
Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, +6.052
Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo, +6.513
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +6.594
Pierre Gasly, Alpine, +2 Laps
Esteban Ocon, Alpine, +2 Laps
Nyck de Vries, AlphaTauri, +2 Laps
Logan Sargeant, Williams, +2 Laps
Kevin Magnussen, Haas, +6 Laps
George Russell, Mercedes, DNF
Alexander Albon, Williams, DNF
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, DNF
Updated Driver Standings
Max Verstappen 69 points
Sergio Perez 54
Fernando Alonso 45
Lewis Hamilton 38
Carlos Sainz 20
Lance Stroll 20
George Russell 18
Lando Norris 8
Nico Hulkenberg 6
Charles Leclerc 6
Valtteri Bottas 4
Esteban Ocon 4
Oscar Piastri 4
Pierre Gasly 4
Guanyu Zhou 2
Yuki Tsunoda 1
Kevin Magnussen 1
Alexander Albon 1
Logan Sargeant 0
Nyck de Vries 0
Constructors Standings
Red Bull 123
Aston Martin 65
Mercedes 56
Ferrari 26
McLaren 12
Alpine 8
Haas 7
Alfa Romeo 6
AlphaTauri 1
Williams 1
