Pole: Max Verstappen
Winner: Max Verstappen
Fastest lap: Sergio Perez 1.20.335
1-10
George Russell had an amazing start as he takes the lead on the inside into turn 1. Leclerc is off at turn 3 after having a tight battle lance stroll but there was not much after Stroll had nowhere to go and clips the tyre of Leclerc. Lap 2 we have a safety car as a lot of drivers come in for a mixture of hard and medium tyres. Lewis made a great start and overtook Max into turn 3. Lap 3 safety car is in, Albon has a good start running in p6 on the medium tyres, elsewhere Piastri and Norris are up a couple of places in 11 and 13th. Lap 6 and there seems to be a gap building between the top 3 and Sainz in the Ferrari. Lap 7 Albon is off in sector 2 and the safety car is out and Russell comes into the pits for the hard tyres. Albon loses the rear in turn 7 and hits the wall and has to retire from the race. On lap 9 red flag is out. On lap 9 we have a standing start.
10-20
Hamilton had another great start as we see contact at turn 3 again with De Vries getting launched slightly into the air as Ocon clips his tyres. Lap 12 Hamilton gets overtaken by Verstappen as the Red Bull breezes past. Lap 13, Russell gains another place on Gasly to take p4. Lap 15 Sainz is making some good moves on the restart taking two positions and making some aggressive moves. Perez is now on his way to a good recovery race as he is now up to p14 from the back of the grid. Lap 18 and it’s heartbreak for Russell as he suffers what could be a leak in the car, it is on fire as he pulls up on the exit of the pit lane.
20-30
Lap 23, Perez is making some solid gains during the race now up to p9 after an overtake on Tsunoda. Sainz makes a great move on the alpine of Gasly into turn 3. Lap 27 and there have been plenty of overtakes as we see Ocon overtaking Tsunoda and previously we saw him overtaking Piastri. Out in front and Verstappen has pulled a 7-second gap to Hamilton who is closely followed by Alonso. Homeboy Piastri makes a good move on Tsunoda to take p11.
30-40
Lap 34 and strategy calls are being discussed across the grid about potentially even stopping again for some as the hard tyres are starting to struggle for grip.
40-58
As Verstappen is setting the fastest laps he is 10 seconds ahead of the field. The battle between Alonso and Hamilton could get tighter towards the end of the race. On lap 43 Perez is closing up on Norris in the McLaren who is putting in a good shift to defend, but in the following lap, Perez makes the move into turn 8 where he has plenty of experience in this position. Turn 11 and Perez overtakes the HAAS of Hulkenberg who has run a solid race for the American team. Lap 45 Norris is closing in on p8 after a miserable start to the season for McLaren this is giving them encouragement. Lap 48 Verstappen struggled with front locking and goes off onto the grass of the track heading into the last corner and loses around 4 seconds to the rest. Lap 51 and Norris and Hulkenberg are battling to try and take p8 as Hulkenberg slides off the track into the gravel into turn 11. In lap 54 we see Magnussen has lost a rear tyre and his suspension has broken there is a stranded tyre on track as the safety car comes out later than expected. Piastri and Bottas have boxed whilst most are thinking that the race will end under the safety car. In lap 55 we have another red flag due to there being some debris on the track.
Absolute chaos on the restart as Fernando Alonso is spun around by Sainz, Perez goes wide off the track and the two Alpines make contact in turn 3. Stroll and Sargeant are both out of the race somehow after making contact or running wide into the gravel. On the replays, Sargeant goes into the back of De Vries after he locks up.
After some time making a decision, the FIA decided that the race will finish under the safety car, the lap on the restart did not go past the first sector so the race will finish under the safety car in the original order they started the restart with taking out the cars that we lost during the restart due to the fact that they cannot actually finish under their own power. This means that Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso finish on the podium and Piastri will score points in his first home race. But it’s not over, Sainz has a 5-second penalty after the collision with Alonso which now means that Stroll will finish 4th and the drivers behind will be trying to finish as close as possible to him as we see Carlos in the car passionately fighting his case. Hulkenberg stopped on track at turn 2 but luckily after he finished the race.
Summary:
Championship leader, Max Verstappen took his first win in Australia amid a chaotic end to the Grand Prix. George Russell took the lead at the start of the race but after Albon's incident, a red flag was waved due to the amount of gravel out on track which meant that he had lost the lead of the race having pitted just before the safety car now finding himself down in 7th. Misfortune for one Mercedes was not the case for both cars as Hamilton now found himself in the lead with Verstappen and Alonso behind him and were all able to put on a new set of fresh tyres for the restart. It was not long before Verstappen was able to retake the lead as he breezed past Hamilton to retake the lead via the use of DRS, the Red Bull car looked as fast as ever as it took another 2 seconds out of Hamilton once he had passed. From then on it looked like a simple afternoon for Red Bull with Perez fighting through the pack to ensure that he completes a good recovery race which he was able to do finishing p5 in the end.
The race seemed to settle during the middle which by this point was building up for one of the most chaotic ends to a race in recent times. Another safety car and a red flag were brought out by Magnussen who had clipped the wall at turn 2 resulting him in losing a rear wheel tyre and littering debris across the track. On this two-lap shootout, Sainz crashed into Alonso at turn 1 and the two Alpines came together as Gasly re-entered the track unsafely all this whilst Sargeant ran into the back of De Vries down at turn 1 and Stroll also had to take evasive action and run into the gravel. This then brought out the third and final red flag of the race, a rolling start ended the race but in the order of the second red flag. Verstappen crossed the line to take p1 followed by Hamilton and Alonso to make the podium of world champions. Lance Stroll finished 4th followed by Perez who was in a recovery race after starting from the back of the grid. It was a decent day for McLaren after Norris finished p6 and Aussie fan favourite Oscar Piastri scored points on his home debut in p8. Hulkenberg finished well for HAAS in p7 and Tsunoda finished the top 10 picking up the last point. Whilst Zhou finished p9, Bottas finished 11th after Sainz's penalty was applied.
One thing that confused many people after the race was Carlos Sainz's 5-second penalty which he appeared to be applied for a lap that didn't 'exist' during the race. After the second restart, none of the drivers made it anywhere near the end of sector 1 so the restart order for the final lap went back to the order of the second restart minus the cars who had crashed out in that "lap" of chaos. Ferrari later sent a petition to the FIA regarding this result as they argue that the penalty was unfair in the first place. Ferrari suffered a disappointing weekend after Leclerc ended up in the gravel on lap 1 and Sainz finished last after his penalty, the team is hoping to at least have a discussion with the FIA to receive some clarification on the penalty as they look to make amends at the next race in Baku.
Next Race: Baku, Azerbaijan
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