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Formula 1 Australian GP
F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins wild Australian GP
Max Verstappen won a chaotic Australian Grand Prix, the third round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, in a race that was red-flagged three times.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Apr 2, 2023, 4:19 PM
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Verstappen lost his lead from pole at the start, as the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton passed him in the opening corners. But Verstappen took control after a restart following Alex Albon’s big crash, passing Hamilton using DRS in the ultra-fast section ahead of Turn 9 – while Russell went out with an engine fire.
Despite a brief off, Verstappen looked to be cruising to victory when the race was red-flagged again when Kevin Magnussen crashed his Haas. A two-lap restart was attempted but that ended in a multi-car crash, that led to another red flag.
Those cars that were still running then completed a final lap behind the safety car in the order of the previous restart.
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2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix results
Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Max Verstappen
58 - 2 Lewis Hamilton
58 0.179 0.179 0.179 3 Fernando Alonso
58 0.769 0.769 0.590 4 Lance Stroll
58 3.082 3.082 2.313 5 Sergio Perez
58 3.320 3.320 0.238 6 Lando Norris
58 3.701 3.701 0.381 7 Nico Hulkenberg
58 4.939 4.939 1.238 8 Oscar Piastri
58 5.382 5.382 0.443 9 Zhou Guanyu
58 5.713 5.713 0.331 10 Yuki Tsunoda
58 6.052 6.052 0.339 11 Valtteri Bottas
58 6.513 6.513 0.461 12 Carlos Sainz
58 6.594 6.594 0.081 13 Pierre Gasly
56 14 Esteban Ocon
56 15 Nyck de Vries
56 16 Logan Sargeant
56 Kevin Magnussen
52 George Russell
17 Alex Albon
6 Charles Leclerc
0 View full results
How the 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix unfolded
Verstappen got wheelspin away from the startline and couldn’t maintain his pole position advantage on the run to Turn 1, where Russell beat him to the apex and grabbed the lead.
Hamilton then muscled past Verstappen for second at Turn 3 as, behind them, last year’s race winner Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari spun into the gravel after clipping Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, causing a safety car.
The race went green on Lap 4, with Russell leading Hamilton, Verstappen, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin). Alex Albon ran sixth early on for Williams, ahead of Stroll.
The top three ran nose to tail, but the safety car was required again when Albon crashed out heavily at Turn 7 and was just missed by Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) as he bounced back on to the track shrouded in a cloud of dust.
Russell pitted for fresh hard tyres, dropping to seventh, allowing Hamilton to inherit the lead, ahead of Verstappen, Alonso and Stroll. Sainz was another to pit, falling back to 11th.
The FIA chose to red flag the race to clean gravel and debris from the track surface, handing those who hadn’t pitted a free tyre change in the pits – ruining the strategies of Russell and Sainz.
That meant a second standing start, with Hamilton starting on pole this time, ahead of Verstappen and the Astons. Hamilton held the lead from Verstappen and Alonso, with Gasly passing Stroll for fourth and Russell doing likewise to run fifth.
Verstappen cruised past Hamilton with DRS on the ultra-fast run to Turn 9 and was already 2s clear when they next crossed the finish line. Russell passed Gasly for fourth on Lap 14, while Sainz caught Stroll napping for sixth a lap later.
Russell’s race ended on Lap 18, when the rear of his Mercedes erupted in flames and he was forced to pull off in a pitlane exit, causing a brief virtual safety car.
Sainz passed Gasly with a sweet move at Turn 3 on Lap 25 to take fourth, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez – who started from the pitlane after his qualifying off – was into the points by this point.
At half distance, Verstappen led by 7s from the closely matched Hamilton and Alonso. He was over 10s clear when he understeered on to the grass at the penultimate corner with 10 laps to go, but he managed to save the moment.
Verstappen’s lead vanished completely when the red flag flew as Magnussen went off at Turn 2 with four laps remaining, and his car and detached tyre needed recovering. Before that, Hamilton had kept Alonso at bay for second, with Sainz falling away in the closing stages and Gasly had been right on his tail. A spirited battle between Lando Norris (McLaren) and Hulkenberg looked sealed with six laps to go when Norris dived past him, but the second red flag meant they lined up again for a two-lap sprint.
Verstappen led from his second pole start of the day, ahead of Hamilton, as Sainz pushed Alonso into a spin at Turn 2. Both Alpines then collided and ended their races in the wall, with Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri) and Logan Sargeant (Williams) also going off into the gravel. Further around the lap, Stroll went off too but continued.
The cars returned to the pits in the order: Verstappen, Hamilton, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Norris, Oscar Piastri (McLaren), the Alfa Romeos of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, and Perez – who ran wide at Turn 1 and dropped to 10th.
But the stewards elected to restart in a different order, as cars hadn’t gone through a sector under racing conditions, and so completed the final lap behind the safety car in the order of the last restart for those cars still running. That elevated Alonso back to third, ahead of Sainz – who was given a 5s penalty that dropped him from fourth to 12th.
Stroll was classified fourth, ahead of Perez, Norris, Hulkenberg (who stopped on his in-lap), Piastri, Zhou and Tsunoda.
Read Also:
- Sainz blasts "most unfair penalty ever", seeks Australian GP stewards' explanation
- F1 stewards reject Haas protest over Australian GP result
- Gasly avoids F1 race ban as no action taken in Ocon Australian GP clash
2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix fastest laps
Cla Driver Laps Time Gap Interval km/h 1 Sergio Perez 53 1'20.235 236.814 2
Max Verstappen 49 1'20.342 0.107 0.107 236.498 3
Carlos Sainz 53 1'20.467 0.232 0.125 236.131 4
Fernando Alonso 53 1'20.476 0.241 0.009 236.105 5
Lewis Hamilton 49 1'20.613 0.378 0.137 235.703 6
Lance Stroll 50 1'20.934 0.699 0.321 234.769 7
Pierre Gasly 47 1'20.995 0.760 0.061 234.592 8
Nico Hulkenberg 46 1'21.124 0.889 0.129 234.219 9
Lando Norris 46 1'21.173 0.938 0.049 234.077 10
Nyck de Vries 50 1'21.183 0.948 0.010 234.049 11
Esteban Ocon 44 1'21.203 0.968 0.020 233.991 12
Oscar Piastri 53 1'21.335 1.100 0.132 233.611 13
Logan Sargeant 50 1'21.456 1.221 0.121 233.264 14
Kevin Magnussen 52 1'21.685 1.450 0.229 232.610 15
Yuki Tsunoda 52 1'21.789 1.554 0.104 232.314 16
Zhou Guanyu 48 1'21.819 1.584 0.030 232.229 17
Valtteri Bottas 46 1'22.233 1.998 0.414 231.060 18
George Russell 16 1'22.680 2.445 0.447 229.811 19
Alex Albon 6 1'23.349 3.114 0.669 227.966 View full results
2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix tyre history
Cla Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Max Verstappen M 8 H 47 S 5 S 6 2
Lewis Hamilton M 8 H 47 S 6 S 5 3
Fernando Alonso M 9 H 47 S 6 S 5 4
Lance Stroll M 9 H 47 S 7 S 7 5
Sergio Perez H 1 M 1 H 6 H 48 S 2 S 1 6
Lando Norris M 8 H 47 S 2 S 5 7
Nico Hulkenberg M 8 H 47 S 6 S 5 8
Oscar Piastri M 8 H 46 S 1 S 2 S 1 9
Zhou Guanyu S 1 H 7 H 53 S 1 S 2 S 3 10
Yuki Tsunoda M 8 H 46 S 1 S 6 S 9 11
Valtteri Bottas S 1 H 7 H 52 S 1 S 2 S 4 S 5 12
Carlos Sainz M 7 H 1 H 48 S 6 S 5 13
Pierre Gasly S 8 H 47 S 2 14
Esteban Ocon S 1 H 7 H 54 S 1 15
Nyck de Vries H 8 M 37 S 9 S 5 S 6 16
Logan Sargeant H 1 M 1 H 7 M 28 H 25 S 1 S 2
Kevin Magnussen M 7 H 1 H 45
George Russell M 7 H 1 H 10
Alex Albon M 6
Charles Leclerc M 0 View full results
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