F1 race results: Max Verstappen wins wild Australian GP

Verstappen lost his lead from pole at the start, as the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton passed him in the opening corners.

But Verstappen took control after a restart following Alex Albon’s Turn 6 crash, passing Hamilton using DRS in the ultra-fast section ahead of Turn 9 while Russell - who had pitted immediately after the Williams shunt when a safety car was briefly declared, prior to the decision to throw red flags - went out with an engine fire.

Despite a brief off, Verstappen looked to be cruising to victory when the race was red-flagged again as Kevin Magnussen crashed his Haas. A two-lap restart was attempted, but that ended in a multi-car crash and led to another red flag.

Those cars that were still running then completed a final lap behind the safety car in the order of the previous restart, although a post-race penalty for Carlos Sainz's Ferrari spinning Aston Martin rival Fernando Alonso at the third, aborted restart dropped him from fourth to 12th.

2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix results

Cla	Driver		Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Max Verstappen		58	-
2	Lewis Hamilton		58	0.179	0.179	0.179
3	Fernando Alonso		58	0.769	0.769	0.590
4	Lance Stroll		58	3.082	3.082	2.313
5	Sergio Perez		58	3.320	3.320	0.238
6	Lando Norris		58	3.701	3.701	0.381
7	Nico Hulkenberg		58	4.939	4.939	1.238
8	Oscar Piastri		58	5.382	5.382	0.443
9	Zhou Guanyu		58	5.713	5.713	0.331
10	Yuki Tsunoda		58	6.052	6.052	0.339
11	Valtteri Bottas		58	6.513	6.513	0.461
12	Carlos Sainz		58	6.594	6.594	0.081
13	Pierre Gasly		56
14	Esteban Ocon		56
15	Nyck de Vries		56
16	Logan Sargeant		56
	Kevin Magnussen		52
	George Russell		17
	Alex Albon		6
	Charles Leclerc		0
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How the 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix unfolded

Verstappen got wheelspin away from the startline and couldn’t maintain his pole position advantage on the run to Turn 1, where Russell beat him to the apex and grabbed the lead.

Hamilton then muscled past Verstappen for second at Turn 3 as, behind them, last year’s race winner Charles Leclerc spun into the gravel after his Ferrari clipped Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, causing a safety car.

The race went green on lap four, with Russell leading Hamilton, Verstappen, Sainz and Alonso. 

Albon ran sixth early on for Williams, ahead of Stroll, but the safety car was required again when Albon crashed out and was just missed by Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) as he bounced back onto the track shrouded in a cloud of dust.

Russell pitted for fresh hard tyres, dropping to seventh, allowing Hamilton to inherit the lead, ahead of Verstappen, Alonso and Stroll. Sainz was another to pit, falling back to 11th. 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.

That meant a second standing start, with Hamilton starting on pole this time, ahead of Verstappen and the Astons. Hamilton held the lead from Verstappen and Alonso, with Gasly passing Stroll for fourth and Russell doing likewise to run fifth.

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. Russell passed Gasly for fourth on lap 14, while Sainz caught Stroll napping for sixth a lap later.

Russell’s race ended on lap 18, when the rear of his Mercedes erupted in flames and he was forced to pull off in the pitlane exit, causing a brief virtual safety car.

Sainz passed Gasly with a sweet move at Turn 3 on lap 25 to take fourth, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez – who started from the pitlane after his qualifying off – was into the points by this point.

At half distance, Verstappen led by 7s from the closely matched Hamilton and Alonso. He was over 10s clear when he understeered on to the grass at the penultimate corner with 10 laps to go, but he managed to save the moment.

Verstappen’s lead vanished completely when the red flag flew as Magnussen went off at Turn 2 with four laps remaining, and his car and detached tyre needed recovering. Before that, Hamilton had kept Alonso at bay for second, with Sainz falling away in the closing stages and Gasly right on his tail. 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 led from his second pole start of the day ahead of Hamilton, as Sainz pushed Alonso into a spin at Turn 2. Both Alpines then collided as Gasly drifted across the path of Esteban Ocon and ended their races in the wall, while Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant were stranded in the Turn 1 gravel after the Williams rookie ploughed into his AlphaTauri counterpart. The drama continued into Turn 3, where Stroll went off under pressure from the delayed Sainz but continued.

The cars returned to the pits in the order: Verstappen, Hamilton, Sainz, Hulkenberg, Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Norris, Oscar Piastri (McLaren), the Alfa Romeos of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, and Perez – who ran into the gravel at Turn 1 and dropped to 10th.

But the stewards elected to restart in a different order, as cars hadn’t gone through a sector under racing conditions, and so completed the final lap behind the safety car in the order of the last restart for those cars still running. That elevated Alonso back to third, ahead of Sainz – who was given a 5s penalty that dropped him from fourth to 12^th.

Stroll was classified fourth, ahead of Perez, Norris, Hulkenberg (who stopped on his in-lap), Piastri, Zhou and Tsunoda.

2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix fastest laps

Cla	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	Sergio Perez	53	1'20.235			236.814
2	Max Verstappen	49	1'20.342	0.107	0.107	236.498
3	Carlos Sainz	53	1'20.467	0.232	0.125	236.131
4	Fernando Alonso	53	1'20.476	0.241	0.009	236.105
5	Lewis Hamilton	49	1'20.613	0.378	0.137	235.703
6	Lance Stroll	50	1'20.934	0.699	0.321	234.769
7	Pierre Gasly	47	1'20.995	0.760	0.061	234.592
8	Nico Hulkenberg	46	1'21.124	0.889	0.129	234.219
9	Lando Norris	46	1'21.173	0.938	0.049	234.077
10	Nyck de Vries	50	1'21.183	0.948	0.010	234.049
11	Esteban Ocon	44	1'21.203	0.968	0.020	233.991
12	Oscar Piastri	53	1'21.335	1.100	0.132	233.611
13	Logan Sargeant	50	1'21.456	1.221	0.121	233.264
14	Kevin Magnussen	52	1'21.685	1.450	0.229	232.610
15	Yuki Tsunoda	52	1'21.789	1.554	0.104	232.314
16	Zhou Guanyu	48	1'21.819	1.584	0.030	232.229
17	Valtteri Bottas	46	1'22.233	1.998	0.414	231.060
18	George Russell	16	1'22.680	2.445	0.447	229.811
19	Alex Albon	6	1'23.349	3.114	0.669	227.966
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2023 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix pitstops

Cla	Driver	1		2		3		4		5		6		7
1	Max Verstappen	M	8	H	47	S	5	S	6
2	Lewis Hamilton	M	8	H	47	S	6	S	5
3	Fernando Alonso	M	9	H	47	S	6	S	5
4	Lance Stroll	M	9	H	47	S	7	S	7
5	Sergio Perez	H	1	M	1	H	6	H	48	S	2	S	1
6	Lando Norris	M	8	H	47	S	2	S	5
7	Nico Hulkenberg	M	8	H	47	S	6	S	5
8	Oscar Piastri	M	8	H	46	S	1	S	2	S	1
9	Zhou Guanyu	S	1	H	7	H	53	S	1	S	2	S	3
10	Yuki Tsunoda	M	8	H	46	S	1	S	6	S	9
11	Valtteri Bottas	S	1	H	7	H	52	S	1	S	2	S	4	S	5
12	Carlos Sainz	M	7	H	1	H	48	S	6	S	5
13	Pierre Gasly	S	8	H	47	S	2
14	Esteban Ocon	S	1	H	7	H	54	S	1
15	Nyck de Vries	H	8	M	37	S	9	S	5	S	6
16	Logan Sargeant	H	1	M	1	H	7	M	28	H	25	S	1	S	2
	Kevin Magnussen	M	7	H	1	H	45
	George Russell	M	7	H	1	H	10
	Alex Albon	M	6
	Charles Leclerc	M	0
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