After two dominant RedBull performances, my own expectations for an exciting race in Melbourne were decidedly low. However, the Australian Grand Prix delivered an absolute barnstormer of action and controversy. Sadly, trigger-happy race direction brought the race to an anticlimactic end. Still, 57-ish laps of high octane fun made the early start worth it.
Starter’s orders
The opening lap delivered a suitable amount of jeopardy for Albert Park. Both Mercedes managed to pip Verstappen in the first few turns, with the carbon fibre arrows running one-two in the early going. Meanwhile Charles Leclerc, who won this race last year, found himself in the gravel and out of the race on the opening lap. It was a rare weekend as the under-achiever in the family for the Monegasque, who watched brother Arthur take his first F2 podium in the feature race earlier that morning.
Leclerc’s early gravel bath brought out the first safety car of the race. Following a strong restart from Russell, a close battle ensued amongst the top three until Williams’ Alex Albon, running a strong race in sixth, lost his rear in turn seven and buried his car in the wall, sending a small garden’s worth of gravel onto the race track and bringing the still-warm safety car back out into the field. Looking to score an early pit stop, both Russell and Sainz dived into the pit lane for fresh tyres, leaving Lewis Hamilton far from impressed with his team and the “massive disadvantage” they’d left him at. One lap later, race control decided there was too much gravel for the race to continue and threw the red flag, ruining both Russell and Sainz’s races in the early going.
The McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Pastry had climbed to P9 and P10, while Checo Perez, who started from the pitlane, was up to 14th.
Starter’s orders (Again)
Chaos ensued on the red flag restart formation lap, with six cars nearly coming together as drivers made their way back to the grid. Hamilton held onto the lead for two laps following a standing start, but soon relinquished P1 to the ever-present Verstappen, who continues to show impressive and dominant form in this year’s championship. Verstappen passed on lap 12 and was 2 seconds ahead within one lap at the front.
A few laps later, George Russell’s engine caught fire, forcing the Brit to retire and drawing a virtual safety car. That’s three interventions so far, if you’re counting.
Sergio Perez climbed up into the points on lap 22, and Carlos Sainz passed a hot Pierre Gasly on lap 25, the Alpine showing great pace in the first half of the race.
Further down the pack, hometown Rookie Oscar Piastri struggled to catch Yuki Tsunoda, as the draggy McLaren wallowed behind the Alpha Tauri, failing to catch up even with DRS open, he eventually caught up on lap 29.
The boring bit in the middle
The next 20 laps passed largely without incident. Verstappen pulled out a ten socond lead over Lewis Hamilton, but a fairy moment in the last corner saw the Dutchman try a brief crack a lawn mower simulator 2023, losing several seconds in the process. On lap 52 Lando Norris finally got the job done on Nico Hulkenberg to move up into P8.
It looked for all intents and purposes like the Australian Grand Prix would fizzle out into another RedBull tyre management exercise, but Kevin Magnussen had other ideas.
Chaos ensues
On lap 54, Kevin Magnussen inexplicably sent his rear end into the wall with just 4 laps remaining, triggering yet another red flag and transforming the race into a three-lap shootout, a trio of champions leading the field.
As per the rules of red flag restarts, the formation lap to the grid counts as a racing lap, with the driver’s lining up on 56/58. Five red lights heralded the beginning of lap 57, and the premature end of several races. Sole Ferrari points hope Sainz took turn one far too quickly and tapped Fernando Alonso, spinning out his compatriot from P3. Pierre Gasly forced Sergio Perez wide and into the gravel, running wide himself in the process. Rejoining the race track, he missed his teammate lurking in his rear-view mirror and moved over, burying Esteban Ocon in the wall. Lance Stroll capitalised on his teammates misfortune and further chaos to snatch P3, only to lock up and go straight onus the road. At the back of the grid, Logan Sergeant went straight into the back of Nick De Vries.
Enough pandemonium for a lifetime of Australian Grand Prix drew out another Red Flag, confirming that the end of the race would be a formality. The only question that remained was the finishing order. Having not completed the first sector, the grid was returned to the original starting order from the lap 56 restart, minus any retirees. Sainz was awarded a five-second penalty, ensuring he wouldn’t even finish in the points when they crossed the line. Race stewards found him “wholly to blame” for the incident which sent Fernando Alonso round.
Big losers from the reshuffle include McLaren, who were on for P6 and 7, and Nico Hulkenberg, who would have finished on the podium thanks to Sainz’s reprimand.
The cars left the pit lane, did one formation lap, and then crossed the line in formation to bring to an end one of the most incident-filled F1 events in recent memory.
The aggrieved Haas team protested the race result given the reshuffle, but to no avail. Post race, drivers were critical of race control and the FIA. Even prime beneficiary Max Verstappen claimed he didn’t understand the need for the race’s penultimate red flag, suggesting a safety car and a rolling start would have been a preferable outcome.
Final classification
VER
HAM
ALO
STR
PER
NOR
HUL
PIA
ZHO
TSU
BOT
SAI
GAS
OCO
DEV
SAR
MAG
RUS
ALB
LEC
Strangely, Ocon and Gasly both received classifications despite not finishing the race, at least according to F1.
What’s next?
A long break before we get to Baku and Azerbaijan gives us plenty of time to process the prospect of a brand new sprint weekend format. The word on is the street is we could see a Friday qualifying session for Sunday’s main event, and a separate Sprint Saturday with a shorter qualifying event for a shorter Saturday sprint race. Personally, I think any change that gives us more meaningful running across the weekend is a bonus. Sprint weekends are undeniably more entertaining than regular race weekends, but separating the Sprint from the main race might give teams the push they need to take more risks and try for more points.
Congratulations
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