MAX FINALLY CONQUER ALBERT PARK, LATE FINISH DRAMA RACE

Max Verstappen claimed another victory at a chaotic 2023 Australian Grand Prix, with three periods of red flags. The Dutchman, who lost several positions at the start against Mercedes AMG, took advantage of a bad day for George Russell to take his 37th victory in Formula 1.

We saw a race full of emotions, something that could not be expected after the dominance of Red Bull in the first two races of the season. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton "ate" Verstappen at the start, which was a good turn of events for an exciting race, but Alex Albon's unfortunate crash changed everything.

His mistake meant the safety car came out, which was used by George Russell and Carlos Sainz Jr., among others, to make their pit-stops. However, there was a red flag soon after and everyone who stayed on the track in the strategy turned into winners.

From that moment, and after overtaking Hamilton who was helpless without his teammate's DRS, Max had a clear path to victory.

But what Verstappen didn't expect was two more red flags to follow at the very finish of the race and he once again had to deal with the unpredictable moments after every standing start with Lewis Hamilton behind him.

However, after the final chaos, Max won the race and increased his lead in the championship over Sergio Perez who only managed to climb from P20 to fifth place.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso maintained a mental battle with a balance of tyre management and performance of their cars, in which the Briton came out victorious, while the Spaniard can also look forward to the third place, because after the last start there was an incident with the compatriot from Ferrari, Carlos Sainz Jr., after which it looked like he would finish out of the points standings.

That contact for Carlos Sainz Jr. resulting in a five-second penalty and, at the end of the race under the safety car, he dropped from P3 to P12, the last place in the standings.

In the end, Lance Stroll was fourth, ahead of Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, Nico Hulkenberg, Oscar Piastri, Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda and Valtteri Bottas.

The start of the race was one of the most interesting in F1 races in recent years. George Russell pounced on Max Verstappen in the opening meters to take first, while Lewis Hamilton did the same in turn three to take second.

The Dutchman dropped to third, and Carlos Sainz Jr. moved up to fourth, ahead of Fernando Alonso who was blocked by Hamilton.

Further back in the order, Charles Leclerc had contact with Lance Stroll, after which he spun and finished the race in the gravel at the side of the track.

Alex Albon surprised by placing sixth at the start and even seemed to have a chance to overtake Fernando Alonso. Lance Stroll was seventh, with Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda behind him.

Charles Leclerc's incident caused a safety car period that lasted until the fourth lap.

At the restart of the race, George Russell defended himself from his teammate, who was not under the threat of Verstappen.

The Red Bull and Aston Martin cars had problems getting the tyres up to operating temperature. Something that suits the hot tracks and save their tires proved to be a weak point here, so we had an interesting turn of events.

While the Red Bulls were waiting for the Pirelli tyres to start working properly, Alex Albon had a dangerous spin on the exit of the turn sixth, after which the safety car had to come back to the track.

George Russell and Carlos Sainz Jr. used this period of several laps to make a pit-stop, but when they got on track the race director decided to stop the race, to clear the track and check the safety barriers.

The red flags were waved, after which the drivers had to head to the pit line. That meant Hamilton took the lead, ahead of Verstappen, Alonso, Stroll, Gasly and Hulkenberg, Russell seventh and Sainz Jr. eleventh.

Each red flag is followed by a standing start, unless the race director judges that there are dangerous track conditions, for example rain.

The second start was without incident. The top three started well and, although Alonso was practically parallel to Verstappen, they held their positions.

Further back, Pierre Gasly placed fourth and George Russell fifth, with Lance Stroll sixth and Nico Hulkenberg seventh.

Carlos Sainz Jr. he was already tenth and it didn't take long for him to be ninth after overtaking Lando Norris. Sergio Perez was sixteenth at the time.

When DRS was allowed, Max Verstappen, in the 12th lap of the race, "flew" past the Mercedes AMG of Lewis Hamilton who had no opportunity for any defensive reaction and took the lead of the race.

Shortly after, George Russell also passed Pierre Gasly for P4, while Carlos Sainz Jr. continued his comeback and was already seventh.

Max Verstappen began to build a gap with the rest and it was already clear that no one could do anything to him on the way to victory.

The battle between Mercedes AMG and Alonso has just begun. On 15th lap Carlos Sainz Jr. already was in seventh place after overtaking Lance Stroll with late braking entering the turn 3.

On lap 18, George Russell's Mercedes AMG began to lose speed and flames were coming out of the back of his car. He was forced to retire from the race, leaving the car at the pit-line exit, prompting a virtual safety car period. One of the rare defects of the Mercedes engine!

The race was restarted two laps later and Alonso was within range of the DRS of Lewis Hamilton in front. After failing to get a chance to attack, the Spaniard decided to save his tyres for later in the race.

Sergio Perez overtook Ocon, Piastri and Tsunoda to reach the ninth place where he had a clear track in front of him and was able to push to the next place in the standings.

Carlos Sainz Jr. after several unsuccessful attempts, managed to overtake Pierre Gasly with a spectacular maneuver and not only climbed to P4, but also closed to just two seconds behind Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard had by far the best overtaking of the season so far.

Halfway through the race, Verstappen was in full control, but a "hot" fight for second place was expected between Hamilton, Alonso and Sainz Jr.. Gasly was trying to hold off Stroll and the rest, but Checo was closing in at a fast pace.

The situation for these drivers remained tense, any mistake could cost a lot, but although everyone pushed their cars, there followed a dull period without major moves. Only, Sergio Perez managed to reach the seventh place and he had Lance Stroll in front of him.

Just when it looked like the race was over, suddenly, on the lap 54 of 58, Kevin Magnussen brushed the wall on the exit of turn 2, causing the safety car to come out, which in turn resulted in the race being stopped and the red flags waved again.

The red flags was in line with fan requests, the race director to not ending the race with a safety car on the track!

With two laps to go, it was time drivers to line up on the pit-line and prepare for a new standing start. All drivers chose the red tyres.

You could sense the chaos that was to follow!

With only one lap of action, everyone wanted to take a risk and that led to contact between Carlos Sainz Jr. and Fernando Alonso, which caused several incidents, with both Alpine cars ending up in a serious incident on the exit of the second corner.

Verstappen and Hamilton, the only ones with a clear track, kept their places and another red flag soon followed.

As was the case at Silverstone, the drivers had not completed a single sector of the lap before the red flags, so the race was restarted according to the order of the previous lap.

The order was reset to Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso, Sainz Jr., Stroll, Perez, Norris, Hulkenberg, Piastri, Zhou, Tsunoda and Bottas.

At the penultimate red flag, the Alpine drivers were the biggest losers, as they were physically unable to return to their positions.

The last restart of the race was fatal for Carlos Sainz Jr., who received a five-second penalty for causing collission and dropped out of the top 10. In his case, if the race had not been resumed, there would have been an opportunity to object to the received penalty, but this way that was not possible!

In the end, Max Verstappen crossed the finish line as the Winner, with Hamilton and Alonso on the podium, while the rest of the points were shared between Stroll, Perez, Norris, Hulkenberg, Piastre, Zhou and Tsunoda.

While writing the race report, a debate raged about Max Verstappen's car placement on the second standing start, when it was spotted (not by the start system, which is quite accurate in scanning the order of the cars), but more importantly it was reported to the race director (the stewards didn't even think to look into this) that the Dutchman was incorrectly placed in the starting position.

Of course it ended without punishment! The explanation is simple. The race at Albert Park had three restarts due to red flags. At the second restart of the race, which took place via a standing start, Verstappen started from the P1 position, and after the numerous pictures that "allegedly" show that the RB19 was placed in front of the yellow line, many worried souls asked the stewards to award a penalty!

First of all, the yellow lines have no influence, let's repeat, absolutely no influence on the placement of the car, but are only an auxiliary reference for the drivers.

The sporting regulations state, specifically section C of Article 48, that it will be considered an offense if any part of the contact zone of the front tires is outside the white lines at the time of the start.

The photos show some parts of Verstappen's car's wheels are ahead of the white line, but the tire's contact patch, which is usually centered in relation to the front axle, was never outside the white line.

In this way, Max's car was positioned correctly, albeit at the very limit, something the Dutchman could have avoided.

However, when the winner is decided even before the start of the race, these "controversies" are good for the F1 championship to keep attention, even at the cost of negative reactions to the FIA, the race director and the stewards.

"I braked a little late, I didn't see the reference line, I thought I still had room and I went a little further than planned. I was on the limit, but the limit is the limit. It doesn't break the rules."

Haas' team protested the results of the Australian Grand Prix.

Team was unhappy that at the last restart the drivers took up the track positions in the order of the previous race restart, minus the damaged cars, which saw Nico Hulkenberg move from fourth to eighth.

Stewards needed a lot of time to make a decision and dissmiss this protest of Provisional Race Classification!