Formula One was back down under this weekend of the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 around the Albert Park Circuit. It was a race with a lot of overtaking, but it was largely overshadowed by a chaotic red flag restart late in the race.
George Russell had a strong start from P2 on the starting grid. Max Verstappen moved to the right to try and cover him off on the fairly long run to the first corner, but Russell was just too fast and was able to dive up the inside of the first corner. Verstappen got a slow exit out of the second corner, nearly getting rear-ended by Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen slowed Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, giving Carlos Sainz an opportunity to challenge for P2 in the race. They were three-wide into turn 3, but Sainz quickly backed out of the fight. Hamilton squeezed Verstappen to the outside of the corner, taking the position. Although Verstappen was unhappy with the move, everything was above board.
A few cars behind, Charles Leclerc spun into the gravel on the outside of turn 3. He had turned in on Lance Stroll, making contact with the Aston Martin. Although Leclerc escaped without any obvious damage, his car was beached in the gravel, making him the first retirement of the race. The safety car was deployed to recover the stranded Ferrari.
This safety car period allowed Esteban Ocon to make a pit stop for the hard tyres to get him to the end of the race. Sergio Perez also pitted for medium tyres, having started on the hard tyres. He then made another pit stop to change back to the hard compound tyres, having satisfied the requirement to run two tyre compounds in the race.
The race restarted with a Mercedes 1-2. George Russell went very early and was able to extend a little bit of a gap to his teammate. However, Hamilton stayed within DRS range of his teammate, likely due to some good teamwork by the Silver Arrows drivers. The front three drivers quickly began to run away from the drivers behind, with all three drivers challenging the driver in front of them.
The safety car was deployed for a second time in the race on lap 7 after Alex Albon crashed into the barriers in turn 7. The Williams driver got some oversteer into the fast turn 6 and skidded across the circuit into the barriers, littering the circuit with debris and gravel.
Mercedes took a gamble to pit Russell under the safety car to free up Hamilton at the front of the race. Carlos Sainz also pitted under the safety car. But this turned out to be a horrible strategy call, as the red flag was thrown to allow the marshals to clear the gravel that was now covering the circuit. This meant that both Russell and Sainz gave up track position for their pit stop when the rest of the field got a free set of tyres during the red flag.
After about 20 minutes, the race was ready to get underway and the cars left the pit lane to do a lap to the starting grid for a standing restart. As the leader, Hamilton was able to control the pace of the field and slowed down to a crawl. This caused a major traffic jam further back in the field, with many drivers having to take evasive action as every practically came to a stop. Kevin Magnussen shot through the gravel trap at turn 7 to avoid colliding with the near-stationary cars. The restart procedure caught the attention of the stewards, who decided to investigate the restart further.
Once the race resumed, Hamilton got away well from the starting grid, being completely ahead of Verstappen before the first corner. Alonso had a look around the outside of Verstappen into the first corner, but was not close enough to make a move.
Further back, Nyck de Vries was launched into the air, after squeezing Esteban Ocon to the outside of turn 3. Both drivers continued after the collision, but de Vries dropped to the rear of the field.
The higher straight line speed of the Red Bull power unit was on full display, with Verstappen pressuring Hamilton for the lead of the race even before the DRS was enabled. With no teammate to help him, Hamilton stood no chance to defend against Verstappen around the four DRS zones. Verstappen was able to blow by Hamilton on the outside of the high-speed turn 10 with DRS. He also got another DRS on the straight that followed, giving him a 2 second lead before the end of the lap.
After having his race ruined by the red flag, things turned from bad to worse for George Russell in the other Mercedes. His power unit blew up in the final few corners 18 laps into the race. His flaming car came to stop at the pit exit, necessitating the virtual safety car.
With Verstappen having secured a comfortable lead of the race, it was up to Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull to provide some entertainment for the Aussie fans. Perez was looking to fight his way through the field after starting from the pit lane because he beached his car in qualifying on Saturday without setting a time. He made many thrilling overtakes in the very quick turns 9 and 10.
This proved to be a favourite overtaking place for a few drivers, with the circuit changes made a few years ago clearly having helped to promote overtaking around the Albert Park circuit.
Elsewhere in the field, it was very much a race of tyre conservation, with many drivers pushing only hard enough to keep the driver behind outside of DRS range. Fernando Alonso would occasionally close the gap to Hamilton in P2, but the seven-time World Champion would quickly create a gap again before Alonso had the chance to challenge for position.
There was a scary moment for the race leader when he very nearly spun on the grass with ten laps remaining in the race. Verstappen was pushing to take the fastest lap from his teammate. He locked up in turn 13 and took a little detour through the grass. He was able to recover quickly and had built a large enough gap to still come away with a comfortable lead.
But that lead went away just a few laps from the end of the race. Kevin Magnussen clipped the barrier on the outside of turn 2, giving himself a suspension failure and leaving the tyre on the circuit with a ton of debris. He parked in turn 4, bringing out the safety car. As the laps ticked down, race control decided to show the red flag, with only three laps remaining in the race.
The stage was set for a grandstand finish, as the drivers lined up on the starting grid for the third time on Sunday. This time, Verstappen had a good start, moving over to cover off Hamilton before the first corner. But it was pure chaos behind.
Sainz had a slow start, allowing Pierre Gasly to get alongside down the main straight. Gasly locked up and ran wide through the grass in the first corner. Sainz went a little too deep into the first corner, spinning Alonso around. Gasly rejoined back onto the circuit and accidentally squeezed his teammate into the barriers on the outside of the second corner, taking them both out of the race.
Further back, Sergio Perez had to cut through the gravel in turn 1 to avoid hitting the slower cars ahead. Logan Sargeant rear ended Nyck de Vries while braking for the first corner. Further down the circuit, Lance Stroll (who found himself in P3) also joined the chaos, running straight into the gravel in turn 3.
The red flag was waved for the third time in the Australian Grand Prix and all attention turned to race control to determine the final positions. Because not all drivers managed to complete the first sector, the race order could not be determined. Race control reverted the positions to what they were before the restart, excluding drivers who were damaged out of the race.
Unfortunately for Carlos Sainz, reverting the results did not stop the stewards from handing him a five-second time penalty for causing the collision with Fernando Alonso. The result was devastating under the conditions, dropping him from P4 to P12 (last of the running cars).
In the end, the cars returned to the circuit to finish under the safety car, giving Verstappen his first Australian Grand Prix victory. Hamilton and Alonso stood on the podium.
The teams, drivers and fans will have nearly a month to recover from this insane end to the Australian Grand Prix. Next up on the calendar is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the weekend of April 30.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 25 | |
| 2 | L. Hamilton | 18 | |
| 3 | F. Alonso | 15 | |
| 4 | L. Stroll | 12 | |
| 5 | S. Perez | 11 | |
| 6 | L. Norris | 8 | |
| 7 | N. Hulkenberg | 6 | |
| 8 | O. Piastri | 4 | |
| 9 | G. Zhou | 2 | |
| 10 | Y. Tsunoda | 1 | |
| 11 | V. Bottas | ||
| 12 | C. Sainz | ||
| DNF | P. Gasly | ||
| DNF | E. Ocon | ||
| DNF | N. de Vries | ||
| DNF | L. Sargeant | ||
| DNF | K. Magnussen | ||
| DNF | G. Russell | ||
| DNF | A. Albon | ||
| DNF | C. Leclerc | ||
