F1 Australian GP: Max Verstappen beats Lewis Hamilton to win chaotic race
Max Verstappen beat former F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton to victory at an incident-packed, stop-start Australian Grand Prix that ended amid chaos and confusion.
The race was suspended on restarted on three occasions due to a multitude of incidents and ended in bizarre circumstances when a late standing restart caused mayhem.
A late red flag looked to set up a thrilling two-lap dash to the finish after Kevin Magnussen lost a wheel, but carnage ensued at the second starting restart when several cars including Fernando Alonso and the two Alpines were all taken out.
That resulted in a lengthy stoppage and initial confusion as to how the race would conclude before the FIA confirmed the race would resume for one final lap with the order being taken from the standing start due to the cars not going through the first sector of the lap at the time the red flag was flown.
That decision acted as a saving grace for Alonso, who despite being spun off by Carlos Sainz, claimed his third consecutive podium finish behind Verstappen and Hamilton.
Sainz finished fourth on the road but a five-second time penalty for causing the collision with Alonso knocked him out of the points and down to P12, promoting Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll into P4.
Following his disastrous qualifying, Sergio Perez recovered from the pit lane to take fifth, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.
Home-favourite Oscar Piastri scored his first F1 points in eighth on his grand prix debut at Melbourne, with Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda completing the top 10 for Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri respectively.
Late chaos aside, it was ultimately another easy victory for Verstappen despite making a slow start that saw him drop behind the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Hamilton.
But the reigning world champion recovered after the race was suspended following a crash for Alex Albon to easily breeze past Hamilton with the aid of Red Bull’s super powerful DRS.
The only slight concern for Verstappen was a brief trip over the grass at the final corner in the closing stages, but he was still able to claim his second win to extend his early championship lead.
Russell, who was unfortunate to lose out during the first red flag after pitting under the intitial Safety Car, ultimately retired with an engine issue.
The Briton joined both Alpines, both Williams, Magnussen, Nyck de Vries, and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in failing to finish the race.
