Max Verstappen with the Australian GP winner’s trophy, joined by runner-up Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in third place. Photo / Don Kennedy
Max Verstappen with the Australian GP winner’s trophy, joined by runner-up Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in third place. Photo / Don Kennedy
There seemed no way for anyone, or anything, to stop world champion Max Verstappen from winning the Australian Grand Prix for the first time.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing for the “Flying Dutchman”. Although he started the race from pole position, by the end of lap one he was behind the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who had surprised almost everyone, including themselves, by taking the second and third spots on the grid in qualifying.
Unfortunately, Russell’s lead wouldn’t last too long, as strangely, his team opted to pit him as early as lap nine, when there was a safety car intervention to retrieve Alex Albon’s stricken Williams. Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari, running in fourth place, also came in. The race was then red-flagged for the first of what would become a record of three red flags, meaning the races of Russell and Sainz were compromised.
Verstappen quickly overtook Hamilton on the restart, the latter being chased by Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin, and the race settled down.
That was until Russell’s Mercedes caught on fire, and he was out of the race. It was now a three-way battle at the front, but not really, because the pace of Verstappen’s Red Bull was too much for Hamilton and Alonso, and he soon had the chasers out of sight.
Alonso tried to close the gap on Hamilton, but on this track at least, the Mercedes had the edge, although Hamilton felt that Alonso had the faster car. But even though the Grand Prix organisers had gone to great expense to alter the track so turns six and seven were faster-flowing, overtaking proved difficult, unless you were Verstappen, and to some extent his teammate Sergio Perez, who started from the pit lane after crashing out in Q1, yet finished fifth to be named driver of the race.
The first corner for the first start, and George Russell (No 6) edges ahead of Max Verstappen (No 1) - but chaos began thereafter. Photo / Don Kennedy
Finishing the race became problematic for half the field, because in the end, only 12 of 24 cars were classified as finishers.
The messy part of the race occurred when there was a second red flag due to Kevin Magnussen in the Haas hitting the wall, leaving debris on the track.
So with about four laps to go, the cars were back in the pit lane. The chaotic part of the race occurred on the second restart. Sainz turned Alonso around at the first corner, and Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll, running fifth, was caught up in the melee.
So, too, were the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who had been running in the top 10, as they came together and were both out.
The race was red-flagged for a third time and the cars returned to the pit lane. Would there be a third restart? The race stewards were studying the rule book, and having given Sainz a five-second time penalty - which had the Spaniard screaming injustice into his team radio - promoted Alonso and Stroll back to third and fourth.
As it was getting dark, and the looks on some of the driver’s faces even darker, it was decided the race would finish behind the safety car.
Verstappen had his first Australian GP victory, Hamilton his first podium in three races, and Alonso a third consecutive third-place finish. All three drivers seemed relatively happy in the post-race press conference, but that didn’t stop them engaging in some searching, light-hearted banter, but with perhaps serious undertones.
Verstappen had complained that Hamilton’s pass on him in lap one meant he was pushed wide and out of the track confines, which he said was against the rules.
“From my side, I just tried to avoid the contact. It’s quite clear on the rules what is allowed to [be done] on the outside, but clearly, it’s not followed,” Verstappen remarked, with Hamilton seated next to him.
“We had good pace, we passed anyway, but it’s something for the next race to take into account.”
Verstappen was also critical of the fact that the red flag was waved on three occasions.
“I don’t think we needed that second red flag, it could have been done with a virtual safety car,” he said, referring to the Magnussen incident.
“It left a lot of drivers confused [as to] why we needed a red flag. Today, it was quite messy.”
Replacing the serious face with a more appealing smile, Verstappen reflected on what was his second win in three races, and the 37th in his still relatively young career, meant, especially given Red Bull’s last win in Melbourne was in 2011.
“We had a very poor start, and then I was careful because I had a lot to lose and they had a lot to win,” he said, referring to the two Mercedes drivers.
“I think the pace of the car was quick, you could see that straight away, we were always there waiting. It was a bit of a mess, but we survived everything, we had good pace on the car today, and we won. Which, of course, is the most important.”
“It’s great to win here, my first win as well. It’s been a while for the team as well, but [I’m] very, very happy. But also it’s great to see the fans are having a good time, even now.
“They had a long wait for the whole day, so I’ll say a big thank you to them for sticking around.”
Some of those fans invaded the track before the race had finished, which got the Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) into a bit of bother with the FIA. The AGPC has to provide the FIA with a “remediation plan“ in response to security and safety failures that allowed fans to get onto the track. A crowd of 131,000 was present on race day, and there were 444,000 spectators over the four days. This was the last race as AGPC chief executive for Andrew Westacott, and sadly for him, he will have to address the crowd incident on his last watch.
“Motorsport is dangerous... it could have been horrific,” Westacott conceded. “Nobody does anything malicious, it’s an unbelievably well-behaved crowd, but they, I think, had a degree of confusion.”
The drivers and their teams didn’t seem to know what was happening in that last half hour, either. Alonso was asked if, in his 358 race starts, he had ever seen anything like it.
“Probably not. We had a rollercoaster of emotions today. Many things going on at the beginning, but then also at the end. The last half hour, [it] was difficult to understand what was going on.”
“But the race itself, it was good for us in terms of pace. I think Mercedes was very fast, and Lewis did an incredible job today... I tried to force a mistake from Lewis race-long, tried to get close, but he drove fantastically well, as the champion he is, and [made] no mistakes.”
Alonso also felt the five-second time penalty his friend and Spanish compatriot Carlos Sainz got, for spinning him around, was “too harsh” and was just a racing incident.
Charles Leclerc, who crashed out at turn three after contact with Stroll, also absolved the Aston Martin driver of any blame, as had the race stewards, saying he was “not pointing the finger [at] Lance”. When told what Leclerc had said, a smiling Stroll replied: “Ah, that was nice of him, I’ll buy him a beer tonight.”
Despite finishing second, for which Hamilton said he was “super-grateful”, he insisted all is not as good as it could be.
“I still feel uncomfortable in the car, though the car is still not... I don’t feel connected to it, so [I’m] driving as best as I can with that disconnect.”
“For us to be up here fighting with Aston, it’s just amazing at this point in the season, and we’ve just to keep on fighting.”
“I think ultimately, [Alonso] was a little bit quicker today behind me, but I just managed to hold him, so for that, I’m really grateful. And also, what a legend... we’ve got a world champion up ahead, three world champions in the top three - that’s pretty mega!”
Not bad for the team, considering team boss Toto Wolff suggested their car should be scrapped after race one and a new one prepared for the season ahead.
Vestappen’s victory gives him a 15-point lead in the drivers’ championship, over Perez, while Alonso remains third, a further nine points back. Hamilton is fourth, seven points behind Alonso. The latter quipped in the press conference that there weren’t three Red Bulls on the podium this time, a dig at Perez, who sarcastically suggested in Bahrain that Alonso’s Aston Martin was really a Red Bull. Alonso also took a light-hearted approach to being hit by someone on lap one and later by Sainz, at the first corner, after the third restart.
“I just felt in lap one of the first start, someone touched me in turn three, and then yeah, in the last restart, Carlos apparently touched me in turn one.”
“Probably only in Jeddah I had a normal start. In Bahrain, also, in turn four, Lance touched me into turn four. So, yeah, there is like - I’m very attractive out there!”
That comment had Verstappen in a fit of laughter, and even raised a broad smile from Hamilton.
But what is no laughing matter, yet quite clever, was the headline in the Herald Sun that perhaps summed up the task facing the other 23 drivers on the grid.
“Just No Stappen Him”, proclaimed the headline in the Melbourne newspaper. Not too many of the 131,000 fans present at Albert Park would disagree with that, nor the fact that local boy Oscar Pastri, driving for McLaren in his first Australian GP, finished eighth, while his teammate Lando Norris was sixth. Piastri perhaps summed up the thoughts of most of the drivers.
