Max Verstappen took a firm grip on the driver’s championship after winning the 2023 Australian Grand Prix despite a few jeopardies thrown at him — some self-inflicted, some circumstantial.
But the pace of Red Bull is so dominant that Verstappen still managed to win easily and took a 15-point lead over his teammate Sergio Perez. For the Mexican driver, it was a weekend to forget after he started from the pit following a poor qualifying session. But, he did well to finish fifth.
However, the race is more likely to be remembered for the farcical way it ended than for the action on the track.
On Saturday, Verstappen took pole position ahead of Mercedes duo — George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, with Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin in fourth. The Mercs were surprisingly quick this weekend after being underwhelming in the first two races, with a combination of track layout and smooth surface helping it maximise its potential.
Meanwhile, Perez was the big loser on Saturday, as he locked up on his timed run in the first part of qualifying and ended up in the gravel traps without setting a time, forcing him to the back of the grid.
On Sunday, Russell pipped Verstappen before the first corner to take the race lead. Going into turn three, Hamilton produced an opportunistic move on the Dutchman — who was very conservative in the opening corners — to make it a Mercedes 1-2.
Further behind, Ferrari’s poor start to the season continued when Charles Leclerc and Lance Stroll came together, with the former ending up in the gravel trap and retiring from the race within a few corners.
The first defining moment of the race came on lap seven when Alexander Albon crashed his Williams, bringing the Safety Car out. At this point, race leader Russell came in for a pit stop while Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso chose to stay out. It was the perfect situation for Mercedes, as it maintained track position with Hamilton. At the same time, a relatively-cheap pit stop would have gained a lot of time for Russell when Verstappen eventually stopped. But unfortunately, there was enough debris on the track to necessitate a red flag. The stoppage allowed every car a free change of tyres, which meant that the likes of Russell and Carlos Sainz, who stopped during the Safety Car period, lost track positions.
At the restart, Hamilton led from Verstappen, followed by Alonso. Within three laps, Verstappen breezed past Hamilton to take the race lead and sprinted into the distance, establishing a lead of nearly 10 seconds.
Dual fates: Lewis Hamilton takes a short-lived lead against Max Verstappen during the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
From then on, the Red Bull driver was in no trouble as he cruised to victory. Hamilton and Alonso battled for second with the British driver, keeping his one-time rival at bay for the remainder of the race in his Mercedes that seemed to like the Albert Park Circuit.
While Hamilton benefitted from the moment of fortune, his teammate, Russell, who lost out on the red flag, had more disappointment when his engine went up in flames forcing him into retirement.
Later on lap 54, with just four laps left in the race, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen clipped the wall, and his right rear tyre bounced off into the track, once again depositing a lot of debris on the circuit.
It was at this point that Race Control made a series of decisions that ultimately proved unpopular and controversial.
After the crash, the FIA deployed the Safety Car, and the expectation was that the race would end behind it.
But a lap later, officials decided to red-flag the race on lap 55 due to wheel rim debris on the track. While having marshalls on the track when cars are going at even restricted speed can be a risk, it seemed the desire to finish under racing conditions was the motive more than safety.
The decision meant a two-lap sprint would end the 58-lap race with a standing start. In such situations, drivers are often likely to take chances with just two laps left and an opportunity to maximise results by being aggressive on the restart.
Expectedly, there was chaos on the second restart of the race when Sainz hit Alonso, leaving the latter facing the wrong way as he fell down the order from third.
Behind them, the two Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly — who drove a brilliant race, running as high as fourth at one point — and Esteban Ocon came together at the restart, taking each other out. The crash between the two French drivers meant the red flag came out immediately, even before Verstappen crossed the first sector of the track.
With just a lap left, the officials had to make two decisions. The first one was to restart again instead of ending the race as there was time left on the three-hour time clock. The second decision was to find the grid order for the final restart. The race officials couldn’t go on the cars’ current position because none of them completed the lap on the third restart.
Ultimately, the officials decided to have the same grid it had before for the final restart, only without the cars that crashed.
One of the big beneficiaries of this decision was Alonso, who got reinstated to third place for the final restart and scored a hat-trick of third-place finishes so far this year.
However, the rules dictate that the lap to the grid also counts towards the race distance. It meant that the remaining cars had to follow the Safety Car from the pit lane for a whole lap and then take the chequered flag on the start/finish straight with no racing allowed. It made the race’s final lap a glorified parade and largely pointless.
For a race that started strongly, it ended with a whimper, with both drivers and fans critical of the Race Director’ s decisions in the last few laps that left everyone bewildered.
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