Australian Grand Prix

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.

That led to a standing restart in which Carlos Sainz tapped Fernando Alonso into a spin, both Alpines crashed out, and Williams' Logan Sargeant also collected ...

Race Control determined that the last point at which it was possible to the determine the position of all cars was when the last grid was formed. “Very shortly thereafter, there was a further Red Flag incident within the first two corners of the resumed race and Race Control had to determine what the order of the grid ought to be for the next restart based on Art 57.3. They suggested that if that line was used then the starting grid position of their car would have been different. “Having considered all the arguments made, we made the following determination… That led to a standing restart in which Carlos Sainz tapped Fernando Alonso into a spin, both Alpines crashed out, and Williams' Logan Sargeant also collected AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries. “In this instance, the race was resumed after another Red Flag incident,” they wrote.

THE RACE FROM A TYRE POINT OF VIEWRed Bull's Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix for the first time in his career. In an action-packed race, ...

Just one week after that comes the first of three American races this year, with Miami hosting its grand prix around the Hard Rock stadium for the second year. Alonso and De Vries were instead fastest on the medium and soft tyres, setting times of 1m22.603s and 1m21.183s on these compounds respectively. The top three started on the P Zero Yellow medium and then went onto the P Zero White hard at the first neutralisation. The virtual safety car also made an appearance, due to a car stopped on the exit of the pitlane. All the podium finishers ended the race on the P Zero Red soft, following a tyre change one lap from the finish. The fact that we saw all three compounds on the starting grid highlights how bringing the C4 tyre to Melbourne this year was the correct choice, as it was judged to be a valid race tyre as well as becoming the protagonist of the final run to the flag, thanks to two red flag periods that were almost consecutive.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton came home second ahead of Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who made it three podiums from three this year.

Lewis Hamilton has defended his overtake of Max Verstappen on lap one of a chaotic Australian Grand Prix after the reigning world champion questioned ...

"I think Red Bull are a little bit out of the picture so we need to continue to focus on ourselves. "We were right there and everything we've done this weekend has been good. I was surprised when I saw Lewis and Max stay out and I was pretty pleased when I saw that because it played right into our hands. "I would probably do the same if it was the other way around," he said. "I was fully up the inside and I think we both left space for each other. "Max (Verstappen) is in another league, his car is so fast.

Max Verstappen claimed his second win of the 2023 Formula 1 season after beating Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in an Australian Grand Prix that ended in farcical ...

[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/) The Briton would eventually retire with an engine failure. It resulted in the Safety Car being called and Russell elected to pit before officials surprisingly then threw a red flag.