The reigning world champion beat Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) in Melbourne, in a race played on the last lap after a third red flag.
Sensation, procession, chaos, and finally logic. Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday April 2, the third round of the world championship which lasted longer than expected, with three red flags and four starts. The Dutchman will have been jostled briefly in an already very eventful start, before taking control and no longer being worried until a crazy end of the race. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) complete the podium, third in row for the veteran Spaniard. Max Verstappen is taking his ease in the drivers’ standings, 15 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez, fifth after starting from the pits.
It all finally came down to the last four laps. Max Verstappen then rode alone towards victory, when a compact pack was playing for the Top 5. Moment chosen by Kevin Magnussen (Haas) to leave the track and cause a new neutralization. With two loops remaining to cover, the suspense was revived with a new standing start and the possibility for Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso but also for Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine), then 4th and 5th, to mingle with the struggle for victory.
But this third start gave rise to carnage, Sainz spearing his compatriot Alonso, and the two Alpine single-seaters of Gasly and Ocon colliding in a series of accidents leaving five cars in total on the floor.
The frustration is immense for the French team. Perhaps as much as the relief of the leaders, who finally did not really have to fight to freeze their positions, Alonso recovering his property according to the regulations. The third red flag – a first in the history of F1 – and the fourth start, given under the safety car, only reinforced this upside-down Grand Prix.
Unhappy Russell, disastrous Ferrari
It was however believed for a time that the established order was going to be upset, thanks to the Mercedes passed in the lead in the first lap, George Russell in front of Lewis Hamilton. The black arrows had left to play a bad trick on Max Verstappen, until the serious accident of Alexander Albon (Williams) in the 8th round. Russell anticipated to change tires, a few seconds before the red flag was deployed, seeing the English driver demoted in the middle of the field, before giving up a few loops later for an engine failure. Hamilton, he will have held two more loops in the lead, the time for Verstappen to benefit from the DRS to overtake and fly away irretrievably. Before this frenetic finale.
Besides Alpine, Ferrari is the other big loser of the day. Charles Leclerc, at fault in the first lap against Lance Stroll, paid for his fault with a premature end of the race. Found guilty of the contact on the third start, Carlos Sainz, he received a penalty which places him out of the points. Points that also discovered for the first time in his career the local beginner Oscar Piastri, ninth with his McLaren.