Formula 1 in Australia: Max Verstappen took a deserved victory in a race that got tangled at the end

Max Verstappen won this Sunday at the Australian Grand Prix, for the third round of the Formula 1 championship. Despite temporarily losing his privileged position at the start, the Dutchman managed to recover quickly with his Red Bull and get a deserved victory, the second of the seasonwhich only endangered the final part, when the competition got tangled due to various oversights and accidents.

The podium of Albert Park circuit in Melbourneit was completed by two other drivers who know what it means to be a champion in the category: the second step was taken by the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), while the third step was reserved for Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).

The race, which had three red flags and finished with a safety car, started with Verstappen losing the pole position he had gained after taking pole position. The Dutchman gave up that position in the first meters against a George Russel who made a great start. Hamilton achieved the same goal, sending the current two-time champion to third place.

Thus, after a short break due to the oversight and abandonment of Charles Leclerc, we reached the eighth lap, when the Thai Alex Albon was involved in an accident – without physical consequences – which forced the race authorities to stop the actions with the first red flag of the Australian evening.

The main victim of that decision was Russell, because during the second start of the safety car, before the partial interruption, he had taken the opportunity to make a pit stop. The 25-year-old Englishman dropped to seventh on the restart and, although he recovered some positions, he was never able to re-enter the fight for the lead.

As if that weren’t enough, arriving on lap 18, he had to do it quit the competitionwith a fire starting in the back of his Mercedes.

On the contrary, Hamilton and Verstappen took advantage of that interruption, which lasted nearly 20 minutes until the Williams of Albon was taken off the track and the tarmac cleared. Both were leading the group and started fighting for the leadership, which the Englishman kept until the twelfth lap, when the Dutchman activated the DRS and passed him at full speed.

He virtual safety car since Russell’s permanent arrest did not change the picture. The current The two-time champion managed the difference pretty much to his liking with the rest of the contestants and gave them no chance to get close.

With the hard compound tires installed during his first stop, it looked like the only thing that could take him away from victory was to get distracted and make a big mistake. In fact, ten laps from the checkered flag, Verstappen went under braking and visited the grass, but the difference compared to Hamilton was such that he was able to get back on track and comfortably maintain the lead.

However, The test would have reserved new requests for the Dutch: Three laps from the epilogue, Kevin Magnussen hit one of the retaining walls causing first a new neutralization and, subsequently, the appearance of the second red flag.

It seemed to be the last chance Hamilton and Fernando Alonso had, who until then had been fighting for second place. remained a few sprint kilometers on soft compound tyresafter one last change during the break.

Verstappen completed a perfect restart, as did Hamilton, but that was not to be the case AlsoWho received a blow to the right rear wheel of Carlos Sainz and left the track.

The spread, for which they had to remove the file red flag for the third timeit was even more unfavorable for the Alpini of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who remained with their damaged units and were unable to participate in the fourth and final start.

As that last lap was not completed, the test authorities decided to hold the positions for the restart, without the changes caused by that circumstance, and to impose a 5 second penalty on Sainz.

But after waiting again for more than 30 minutes before restarting, and despite the expectation of seeing one last lap at full speed, they solved complete the last lap behind the safety car, subtracting emotion from the result.

The recovery of “Checo” Pérez

One of the great protagonists of the Australian Grand Prix was Sergio “Checo” Perez. The Mexican driver, who had just won in Saudi Arabia, was quickly knocked out of Saturday’s standings when he crashed in the first round (Q1) of the session after losing control of his Red Bull machine in the third of the circuit’s 14 corners.

This situation led him to starting from the last position, from which he advanced steadily until he was seventh. Luckily for him, the general chaos in the final and the disqualification of Sainz allowed him to complete his remarkable recovery and finish in box number 5.

The next Formula 1 engagement, the fourth of the 2023 season, is scheduled for the weekend of April 28-30, when the action will move to the Baku street circuit in Azerbaijan.