Australian Grand Prix

After a hugely dramatic Australian Grand Prix that featured three red flags, Formula 1's officiators are once more coming under scrutiny for their ...

"How the hell you can put a red flag before?" "(In) the second half, and especially with four laps to go, I feel like you ruin a lot of things. And, because they try and put on a show, you just get unlucky, and everything can get taken away from you all of a sudden. I guess, maybe in the first quarter of the race, I understand it. "I'm not going to disagree with this red flag," Sky Sports F1's David Croft said. "We come all the way to Australia, but it's so much hard work to drive 56, 55 laps perfectly. [Stream the biggest moments on NOW](https://www.nowtv.com/promo/sky-sports?dcmp=articlelink) There was little dispute over the final red flag, with the heavy impact the Alpines experienced and the need to check on their safety - along with all the resulting debris and chaos - a valid reason for the stoppage. It's just strange, but I do understand safety-wise as well." The McLaren driver said: "I kind of hate it. With both the debris and the possibility of the race finishing behind the Safety Car in mind, another red flag was thrown, setting up a theoretical two-lap sprint to the end from a standing start. The clean-up operation began with a recovery vehicle coming on track and lifting the Williams off the ground, but as that was going on, a red flag was thrown with the presence of debris and gravel on track the reason for the decision.

That led to a standing restart in which Carlos Sainz tapped Fernando Alonso into a spin, both Alpines crashed out, and Williams' Logan Sargeant also collected ...

Race Control determined that the last point at which it was possible to the determine the position of all cars was when the last grid was formed. “Very shortly thereafter, there was a further Red Flag incident within the first two corners of the resumed race and Race Control had to determine what the order of the grid ought to be for the next restart based on Art 57.3. They suggested that if that line was used then the starting grid position of their car would have been different. “Having considered all the arguments made, we made the following determination… That led to a standing restart in which Carlos Sainz tapped Fernando Alonso into a spin, both Alpines crashed out, and Williams' Logan Sargeant also collected AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries. “In this instance, the race was resumed after another Red Flag incident,” they wrote.

DRIVERS 1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing) 2 – Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)3 – Fernando ALONSO (Aston Martin) TRACK INTERVIEWS(Conducted by David Coulthard) ...

I know there was a piece of tyre debris in the first straight but the car itself was on the inside of Turn 4 so it felt quite safe there. I think if you would have had a Safety Car and then just had a normal rolling start we wouldn't have had all these shunts and then you have a normal finish. I was surprised with all the red flags, to be honest, because the first one, I think, was [because of] a Williams in Turn 6, but we went through there one lap, I think, behind the Safety Car and there was a little bit of gravel, but nothing really too bad on track. MV: To be honest with you I think I braked a bit late and then I lost my reference a bit but then I looked and I was like I still have a little bit more space. For us, it's just an opportunity, so yeah, I was pretty sure that I could be second, to be honest, in the last start, because we've been very good, very strong on the starts and it was good again, I was side-by-side into Turn 1. But then he had a moment where he backed off and I was able to save a bit and then got into a good rhythm and I was able to just keep that gap exactly the same for those last 10 laps or whatever. He had two or three charges which I had to then really up the ante and try to match him, which was which was tough. But I think the race itself towards the end was a bit of a mess with all the calls. We had a very poor start and then lap one, I was careful, because I had a lot to lose and they had a lot to win, you know. MV: Yeah, just a tiny lock-up and they want to flat spot the tyres, so I ran a bit wide, cut the grass a bit, saved Melbourne a bit of money to cut the grass there. And it's just part of racing, but I didn't see the replay properly, but for me, it feels to hard. So, yeah, after that I mean I think the pace of the car was quick, you could see that straightaway.

Lewis Hamilton has defended his overtake of Max Verstappen on lap one of a chaotic Australian Grand Prix after the reigning world champion questioned ...

"I think Red Bull are a little bit out of the picture so we need to continue to focus on ourselves. "We were right there and everything we've done this weekend has been good. I was surprised when I saw Lewis and Max stay out and I was pretty pleased when I saw that because it played right into our hands. "I would probably do the same if it was the other way around," he said. "I was fully up the inside and I think we both left space for each other. "Max (Verstappen) is in another league, his car is so fast.

Max Verstappen claimed his second win of the 2023 Formula 1 season after beating Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in an Australian Grand Prix that ended in farcical ...

[PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/ranking-the-top-10-pre-war-grand-prix-drivers/10447980/) [PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/the-state-of-play-in-f1s-technical-silly-season/10449298/) [PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/the-cycle-of-f1-upheaval-williams-must-end-to-rediscover-past-glories/10449257/) [PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/how-f1s-new-era-has-exposed-the-downside-of-its-most-important-rule/10449931/) The Briton would eventually retire with an engine failure. It resulted in the Safety Car being called and Russell elected to pit before officials surprisingly then threw a red flag.

A Formula One fan at the Australian Grand Prix suffered a cut to his arm when struck by a piece of debris, putting the spotlight on safety protocols.

“My fiancee was pretty spooked by it and borderline shell-shocked.” Part of it was shredded and really sharp, if it hit me in a different angle, it could’ve been horrendous,” he added. “It slapped me in the arm and I was just standing there bleeding,” he told radio station 3AW.

A spectator at the Formula One Australian Grand Prix suffered a cut to his arm when struck by a piece of debris from Kevin Magnussen's car, putting the spo.

Lewis Hamilton took his first podium finish of 2023 with second place for Mercedes and Fernando Alonso took his third P3 finish in a row for Aston Martin. At ...

Verstappen made a good start to hold the lead ahead of Hamilton, but behind the top two Alonso was clipped by Sainz and the spinning Aston Martin sent Gasly wide. When the Alpine driver rejoined it was into the path of team-mate Ocon and the team-mates collided. His next target was Hülkenberg and on lap 44 the Mexican moved to P7 with a simple overtake in Turn 9. With small gaps between the leading cars and with just a handful of laps remaining it seemed like the order might settle. The Mercedes’ driver pulled over at the pit exit with flames at the rear of his car. A standing re-start was specified by Race Control, with Hamilton in P1 ahead of Verstappen and with Alonso third alongside his Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll. Sainz was back up to fourth ahead of Gasly and Stroll. And when the lights went out Hamilton held his lead. With Leclerc’s car beached, the Safety Car was released. That badly affected those who had pitted during the Safety Car, with the rest of the field getting an opportunity to change tyres ahead of a standing restart. Lewis Hamilton took his first podium finish of 2023 with second place for Mercedes and Fernando Alonso took his third P3 finish in a row for Aston Martin. Charles Leclerc was tagged by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and the Ferrari driver was pitched into the gravel trap at Turn 1 where he was forced to retire.