A chaotic race in Melbourne which saw Max Verstappen take his 37th career win, another forgettable weekend for Ferrari, 3 red flags, Lewis Hamilton on the podium and McLaren back in the points.
Win Number 37 for Max!
Max Verstappen won today for the 37th time in his career and also his 80th podium which saw Max equal Ayrton Senna's career podium tally. Max's win wasn't easy after 3 red flags occurred and after starting on pole for the race, he found himself P3 after the first 3 corners after being overtaken by Russell at turn 1 and Hamilton at turn 3.
After Alexander Albon crashed his Williams on lap 7 at turn 6, the safety car was deployed and race leader George Russell pitted along with Carlos Sainz. This left teammate Lewis Hamilton in the lead and Verstappen in second. Unfortunately for the ones who pitted, the red flag was thrown out as the FIA felt there was too much gravel on track. This allowed drivers who hadn't pitted to change tyres.
After the race had been restarted, it was lap 12 where Max took the lead of the race from Hamilton and despite all the chaos, Verstappen held the lead to win for the second time this season.
A Positive Day for Mercedes
Despite George Russell's engine failure on lap 10, Mercedes had a positive day and weekend on the whole as Lewis Hamilton finished P2 10 years on from his Mercedes debut. One of the main positives for Mercedes this weekend was their pace over Aston Martin as Hamilton was able to out-pace Fernando Alonso in third behind. Mercedes were also first and second for 8 laps of today's race, another sign that the W14 may have more pace than we originally thought.
A Drive Of The Day Performance from Perez
As voted by the fans, Sergio Perez was voted driver of the day with 21% of the vote. Perez started the race from the pitlane and managed to fight his way up the grid to finish fifth by the time the chequered flag waved.
The Second Red Flag
A second red flag was thrown after Kevin Magnussen collided with the wall on lap 2 and with a tyre and a lot of debris on track the FIA brought out the red flag for a second time. Once the race was resumed there were 2 laps of racing left but as they restarted, chaos ensued. Sainz spun Alonso around at turn 1, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon collided taking them both out, Logan Sargeant ran into the back of Nyck De Vries and Lance Stroll went off at turn 3. All of this brought out the third red flag of the race.
A Pointless Race for Ferrari
Neither Ferrari driver scored points in today's race after Leclerc collided with Lance Stroll's Aston Martin on lap 1 at turn 3 which saw Leclerc spin around into the gravel and was stuck so couldn't continue. Carlos Sainz was eleventh on the grid at the restart after the first red flag as his pit-stop before the red flag cost him several positions. Sainz fought his way up to fourth behind Alonso and after the second red flag restart, Carlos went too deep into turn 1 spinning around his childhood hero Fernando Alonso which resulted in a five second penalty for Sainz. As the race ended under the safety car, Sainz dropped from fourth to twelfth and was the last of the remaining drivers. 2023 has now been Ferrari's worst start to a season since the new point system introduced in 2010.
McLaren Are Back!
McLaren are back in the points as Lando Norris finished P6 and home hero Oscar Piastri finished P8 to score his first points of the season at his home grand prix. McLaren had failed to score points in the first 2 races of the season and this was the first time Norris had failed to score points in the first 2 races in his career.