F1: Verstappen outduels Hamilton to win crash marred Australian GP

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Defending World Driving Champion Max Verstappen outdueled Lewis Hamilton to win a crazy crashed marred Australian GP.

Verstappen had to survive three Red Flag restarts to win his 37th Formula 1 race and his first in Australia. Verstappen put in a dominant display once more for his second win from the first three races.

With 131,124 sun-drenched fans in attendance, polesitter Verstappen lost the lead of the Australian GP at the start of the race to both Mercedes drivers, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

After the first Red Flag period, Verstappen had arch-rival Hamilton in front of him on the lap 10 restart, but it took the Dutchman just two laps to school Hamilton around the outside of turn 9 and drive off into the distance.

With small gaps between the leading cars and with just a handful of laps remaining it seemed like the order might settle. That notion evaporated on lap 54 when Haas’ Kevin Magnussen hit the barriers in Turn 2. After losing his right rear tire, the Dane pulled over at the side of the track, but with the tire on the circuit at the exit Turn 2, the Safety Car was released once again. However, with wheel rim debris spread across the track, the red flags were shown.

With so much at stake, the restart was always going to be dramatic, but when the lights went out it quickly turned to chaos. 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 teammates collided. With chaos reigning the red flags were shown again.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was heading for his third and the final podium position – but not before being spun out on the third restart by the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. who received a 5-second penalty for the infraction.

However, the third red flag came out before the cars reached the first timing line and the order was reset as it was for the 4th restart – a one lap dash to the finish – and Alonso was put back in third place.

The one-lap dash to complete the race never went green because the cars crossed the finish line to complete the 58 laps on the way to the grid for what would have been the 4th race start/restart.

The grid would form based on the previous starting order with the crashed cars removed. With a single lap remaining the cars would be led across the line by the Safety Car and with no overtaking allowed until the finish line, Verstappen’s second win of the season was assured.

Early leader George Russell retired from 4th place with a Mercedes Power Unit failure on lap 18. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed, for Russell. The Mercedes’ driver pulled over at the pit exit.

It was Verstappen’s 2nd win in the first three races as he extends his point lead at the front to 15 points over his teammate Perez.

“We had a very poor start, Lap 1 I was careful as I had a lot to lose. After that, the pace of the car was quick. With these red flags, I don’t know, I don’t really understand. It was a bit of a mess, but we had good pace, and we won, so that’s important. It’s great to win here, my first win [here] as well.”

Interestingly, Verstappen indicated he was still unhappy at the move Hamilton made to get past him on the first lap nearly three hours ago. He’ll review the tapes, as will Hamilton – and it may well get raised at the drivers’ briefing at the next race.

Carlos Sainz in the #55 Ferrari lost 4th due to his 5-sec. penalty (relegating him down to 12th) while his teammate Charles Leclerc crashed out in Turn 3 on the opening lap after being pushed off by Lance Stroll. Another bad day for Ferrari.

Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez rounded out the top-5 after Sainz’s 5-second penalty was added. Perez started last and was quite happy to recover to 5th.

Lando Norris in sixth and Oscar Piastri in eighth got McLaren’s campaign up and running at last, with the Australian emulating his manager Mark Webber in scoring on home soil in his first race at Albert Park.

Hulkenberg also deserves a mention – he might feel hard done by to be denied the fourth place, which is where he was running after that disastrous restart, but seventh still means good points for the team.

After the crazy finish, Alonso was out of the car and hugging his crew, who had procured a huge cardboard cut out of the Spaniard’s face from somewhere.

“We had a rollercoaster of emotions today, many things going on at the beginning, and the last half an hour! Mercedes were very fast and Lewis did an incredible job – I could not match the pace, but we’ll take P3. P3, P4 for the team is an amazing Sunday.”

Hamilton was also celebrating – that is a big, and somewhat unexpected, step forward from Mercedes this weekend.

“Unlucky for George today, really unfortunate,” said Hamilton.  “I didn’t expect to be second so I’m super grateful for it. I still feel uncomfortable in the car though, I’m driving as best I can and working as hard as I can but still, considering we’ve been down on performance and in straight pace, for us to be up there fighting with Aston is amazing. We can close that gap – it’s going to be tough but not impossible.”

Red Bull are still dominant in terms of pure pace, with Verstappen able to build a decent lead when not pegged back by Safety Cars and red flags, and it is going to take quite something to stop him this year.

But Mercedes have made a step forward – so just imagine where they might be come May, when those big upgrades start to arrive.

Aston Martin likewise have upgrades coming, and definitely are going to close the gap as well.

Due to the cancellation of the Chinese GP there is now a 4-week break until the Azerbaijan GP on April 30th.

Race Results (Finished Under Yellow)

Provisional results. Note – Perez scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. Sainz received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision.