F1

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes “can close that gap” to Red Bull after scoring second to Max Verstappen in Formula 1's heavily disrupted 2023 Australian Grand Prix ...

[PrimePrimeFormula 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/the-recent-australian-gp-form-history-that-will-boost-ferrari-in-f1-2023/10449759/) [PrimePrimeFormula 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/why-piastris-f1-homecoming-will-be-a-landmark-occasion/10449894/) [PrimePrimeFormula 1 ](/f1/news/how-f1s-new-era-has-exposed-the-downside-of-its-most-important-rule/10450392/) Hamilton continued: "It's really unlucky for George today. But I think it's a long project. I still don't feel connected to it.

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.

That elevated Alonso back to third, ahead of Sainz – who was given a 5s penalty that dropped him from fourth to 12th. A spirited battle between Lando Norris (McLaren) and Hulkenberg looked sealed with six laps to go when Norris dived past, but the second red flag meant they lined up again for a two-lap sprint. 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. That meant a second standing start, with Hamilton starting on pole this time, ahead of Verstappen and the Astons. But 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. Despite a brief off, Verstappen looked to be cruising to victory when the race was red-flagged again as Kevin Magnussen crashed his Haas.

F1 fans went wild after Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin racing suit had a dark patch that looked like he had peed himself.

With a third red flag being brought out, the FIA elected to go for another restart – although this time it was behind a safety car and the cars only went around ...

[PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/why-drivers-are-the-least-of-ferraris-f1-worries/10448581/) [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/) All such cars will then be permitted to resume the sprint session or the race.”

All-time great podium features the two-time defending champion, along with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso.

Rookie team-mate Logan Sargeant had a quiet weekend in the sister car. “With all the accidents, it was a good chance to score points this weekend, so I’m very sorry to the team. Williams’ slippery FW45 was rapid around the streets of Albert Park, particularly in the hands of Alexander Albon, who qualified a promising eighth. When the pack bunched together at the tricky right-hander Leclerc got a tap from Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and wound up beached in the gravel. Leclerc has had a wretched start to the 2023 campaign and his woes continued in Australia, an event he utterly dominated 12 months ago. That restored the spun Alonso up to third, but Sainz was penalized for the incident and handed a five-second penalty, plunging him down the order because of how close the field was over the line. The only certainty at that stage was Verstappen first, Hamilton second, but behind it was a mess. Haas driver Magnussen, running 12th, drifted wide through Turn 2 and clipped the wall, removing his rear-right tire from the wheel rim, and prompting the deployment of the Safety Car. Hamilton held second, keeping a buffer to third-placed Alonso, while Carlos Sainz held fourth for Ferrari. The first red flag came on the eighth lap of 58, after Williams’ Alexander Albon binned it at Turn 6, dragging extensive debris and gravel onto the track. Max Verstappen claimed victory in the Australian Grand Prix to open up a 15-point championship lead over teammate Sergio Perez. Max Verstappen won the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen claimed victory during a wild and action-packed Australian Grand Prix, overcoming battles with the Mercedes drivers, several Safety Cars and ...

After that, I think the pace of the car was quick, you could see that straight away, we were always there waiting for the DRS to open up, to have a chance to pass. “But with these red flags, the first one maybe you can do it but I think that second one I don’t really understand. They had a long wait for the whole day, so I’ll say a big thank you to them as well for sticking around. “It’s great to win here, my first win as well,” said victor Verstappen. A quick stewards’ investigation settled on no further action. After the delay, the Safety Car led the field out of the pits and back to the grid for the restart, with Hamilton leading a particularly slow formation lap – the knock-on effect being several near-misses towards the rear of the field as cars backed up. As the race neared half-distance, Hamilton expressed concerns over whether his hard tyres would make it the chequered flag, with Verstappen continuing to pull away and look more and more comfortable in the lead with a series of fastest laps. On Lap 18 there was yet more drama as Russell ground to a halt on the start/finish straight with flames coming from the back of his Mercedes, bringing out a Virtual Safety Car and once again stabilising the gaps between cars up and down the order. In the race build-up, there was a change to the grid as both Perez – who slid out of Q1 in qualifying – and Bottas – the slowest of the drivers to post a qualifying time – swapped their starting slots for the pit lane, having made various car changes under parc ferme conditions. A rolling start took the field around to the chequered flag, with Verstappen crossing the line for his first victory in Australia, as Hamilton and Alonso completed the podium ahead of Sainz, Stroll, Perez and Lando Norris. Verstappen brushed off the early drama to move into a comfortable lead as the race developed, while Hamilton held P2 and set about managing the gap back to Alonso, who was joined by the recovering Sainz and Pierre Gasly in a fight for the podium positions. A subsequent red flag for Albon’s incident brought the field back to the pits, with Hamilton leading Verstappen and Alonso, taking advantage of misfortune for Russell and Carlos Sainz, who were the two front-runners to take on fresh tyres just before the stoppage.

by F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth. BEIJING, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Red Bull's Max Verstappen survived the drama of three red flags and a late restart to ...

(Photo by Qian Jun/Xinhua) In the Constructors' standings, Red Bull have a commanding lead with 123 points. Verstappen's win sees him extend his championship lead to 69 points. Lando Norris finished sixth for McLaren, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in his Haas. It's great to win here, my first win [here] as well."

It was McLaren's Ron Dennis and Ekrem Sami who decided, back in the 1980s, that sponsors were no longer sponsors. Instead, they were partners. Commercial ...

[PlusPlusFormula 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/the-recent-australian-gp-form-history-that-will-boost-ferrari-in-f1-2023/10449455/) [PlusPlusFormula 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/the-convoluted-tier-system-that-reveals-an-f1-strength/10450815/) Being a sponsor suggested something altogether different.

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.

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.

Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to win Formula 1's 2023 Australian Grand Prix, which ended in farcical scenes following a late second red flag of three and ...

[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 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/the-recent-australian-gp-form-history-that-will-boost-ferrari-in-f1-2023/10449455/) [Lando Norris](https://www.autosport.com/driver/lando-norris/840487/) and [Nico Hulkenberg](https://www.autosport.com/driver/nico-hulkenberg/829440/) put in a thrilling battle during the pre-Magnussen red flag events and they ended up sixth and seventh ahead of home hero [Oscar Piastri](https://www.autosport.com/driver/oscar-piastri/869530/). [PlusPlusFormula 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/why-piastris-f1-homecoming-will-be-a-landmark-occasion/10449570/) [PlusPlusFormula 1 ](/f1/news/how-f1s-new-era-has-exposed-the-downside-of-its-most-important-rule/10449931/) [Charles Leclerc](https://www.autosport.com/driver/charles-leclerc/840485/) had retired in the Turn 3 gravel way back on the first lap after turning in and finding Lance Stroll on his inside and getting turned around in what was swiftly declared a racing incident. [PlusPlusFormula 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/the-convoluted-tier-system-that-reveals-an-f1-strength/10450815/) [PlusPlusFormula 1Saudi Arabian GP ](/f1/news/whats-next-for-mercedes-in-the-quest-to-get-back-to-the-top-of-f1/10449981/) [F1 Formula 1Australian GP ](/f1/news/australian-gp-promoter-accepts-investigation-following-f1-circuit-breach/10452354/) [F1 Formula 1 ](/f1/news/video-/10452391/)

Esteban Ocon says his shunt in the 2023 Australian Grand Prix could have been caused by any number of "suicidal" Formula 1 drivers rather than blaming Alpine ...

[PrimePrimeFormula 1 ](/f1/news/the-state-of-play-in-f1s-technical-silly-season/10449427/) [PrimePrimeFormula 1 ](/f1/news/the-cycle-of-f1-upheaval-williams-must-end-to-rediscover-past-glories/10449522/) [PrimePrimeFormula 1 ](/f1/news/how-f1s-new-era-has-exposed-the-downside-of-its-most-important-rule/10450392/) The incident between Gasly and Ocon is under investigation. "But some drivers were just suicidal a bit in Turn 1, like Nyck on the inside. But what was tricky was a little bit the light being lower, we couldn't really see so well.