F1: Verstappen Battles Hamilton To Win A Chaotic Australian GP

The 2023 Australian GP posed all sorts of action throughout the duration of the Grand Prix, which in itself was elongated due to as many as 3 red flag interruptions. The start of the race saw George Russel take the lead ahead of Verstappen after a brilliant start and first corner. Hamilton also wasted no time behind the championship leader, overtaking him by turn 3 of the first lap, making it a Mercedes 1-2. Charles Leclerc was tapped at the back by Lance Stroll at the first corner, instantly eliminating him from the race and triggering a safety car.

The race soon resumed to only be interrupted once again, as Alex Albon crashed into the barriers triggering a safety car. George Russel pitted under the safety car conditions from the lead, but the session was red flagged after his pit stop, putting him at a disadvantage & down in P7. With the red flag coming out on lap 9, the entire grid - except 2 - switched to hard tyres for the remainder of the race. With 49 laps to go, the race thereon was purely relying on managing the tyres, as most of the grid eyed a one-stop race.

George Russell had a good restart after the red flag as he moved up to P5, but the same was rendered useless as he retired after his power unit failed. Fast forward to 2 laps to go to the end, the session was red flagged yet again as Kevin Magnussen ran into a barrier, losing the rear right tyre in the process. The race was restarted for the final 2 laps, and the restart was nothing short of chaotic as 7 drivers were caught up in incidents. Carlos Sainz triggered the start of this domino effect, as he made contact with Fernando Alonso and spun him around. Sainz received a time penalty for this incident later, and was dropped down to the last of the finishers. Lance Stroll had a good start from P5 and was in P3 after Alonso-Sainz contact, but he locked up his brakes into turn 3 and headed straight into the gravel trap. Pierre Gasly ran wide into turn 1, and collected his teammate while coming back on track, causing a big crash which ended Alpine’s brilliant race that could’ve ended in a double points finish. Logan Sargeant also locked up into turn 1, collecting Nyck De Vries in the process.

The session was instantly red flagged, and with neither of the drivers completing even one sector on the restart, the order of the cars from before the restart was reinstated. But with only one lap to go, the race couldn’t be restarted, and had to be finished under a safety car, which led only 12 cars across the line. With the positions being reinstated, Alonso got away with the incident, claiming his third podium in 3 races this season. However, it was Mercedes who turned up with impressive pace today, showing that they can snatch P2 in the constructors away from Aston Martin.