In the craziest race in memory at Albert Park, with three safety cars, three red flags and four starts, Fernando Alonso climbed to his third consecutive podium finish at the Australian GP, ​​the 101st of his career, taking third place . After two and a half hours of a race plagued by incidents, Max Verstappen prevailed, who saw the checkered flag behind the safety car, and in front of a Lewis Hamilton who got back on the box.
Carlos Sainz came up short in Melbourne, losing fourth place and being relegated to 12th due to a 5-second penalty for touching his friend Alonso and causing him to spin on the penultimate lap. The disaster from which the Asturian got rid of.
The start was spectacular, with the two Mercedes biting Verstappen’s Red Bull like wolves, which gave up its privileged position on pole position as it does not usually happen. Russell overtook him at the first corner on the inside, and Hamilton overtook him at the third corner, choking him, to relegate him to third.
Meanwhile, Sainz, who started fifth, was very skilful overtaking Alonso on the inside to conquer fourth position for the Spaniard. Leclerc touched Stroll and went to the gravel, unable to return. Another possible podium position released (added to that of Checo Pérez, who was leaving the pit lane).
Thus, after withdrawing the safety car (v. 5) that appeared in the first lap due to the accident of the Ferrari, the Mercedes undertook the escape before Verstappen. Hamilton was very aggressive and attacked his teammate Russell, the Dutchman followed them and they moved away 2.5 seconds from Sainz, increasingly off the hook.
But on the seventh lap the safety car reappeared due to a spin by Albon’s Williams at turn 8. Russell and Sainz took the opportunity to change tires (hard).
The decision to replace the tires turned out to be a terrible one for the Englishman and the man from Madrid, as a red flag was immediately issued to clean the gravel track. It meant that Russell and Sainz had sacrificed the lead and 4th respectively for nothing, because with the caution all the cars would stop, change tires and start again from the grid.
On the contrary, Fernando Alonso benefited from the temporary suspension of the race, who gained two positions, from fifth to third, without having to overtake. Of course, he had two monsters in front of him, Verstappen and Hamilton, in the lead.
The race restarted with another start from the grid. On this occasion, Hamilton kept his first position, Verstappen went wrong, but kept second place against the harassment of Alonso, third, in front of Alpine de Gasly. Stroll went wrong, handing fifth to Russell, while Sainz dropped to 10th, then 9th as he overtook Norris.
The dance started early. Verstappen marked the overtaking of the race by beating Hamilton on the outside, lap 12, to take the lead. His Red Bull left the Mercedes dry on the straight, and he began to fly to quickly accumulate a 3-second lead in a couple of laps. Sainz, plugged in, was 6th when he aggressively struck Stroll.
Another mishap visited the race on lap 18. Russell was erased by breaking his Mercedes when he was fourth, chasing Alonso. One less threat for the Asturian, who happened to have Gasly behind him and his friend Sainz, fifth.
The Madrid driver from Ferrari got out of the way of the Alpine in turn 3 of lap 25 to begin to approach Alonso, whom he had 2 seconds behind. The Asturian realized this, and had to pick up the pace.
While Verstappen rode alone, with more than 8 seconds to spare, Alonso’s pursuit of Hamilton warmed up after halfway through the race (v. 34). The Spaniard came to put himself in the DRS zone, less than a second away, although the Englishman made the rubber and distanced himself when the Aston Martin got closer to him. As a consequence, Sainz was also approaching Alonso at 1.2s, close to candy. And Gasly from Madrid at 0.7s… Four in a handkerchief of 4 seconds.
The race was dying in an anodyne way, without changes of positions, when a blowout and the loss of the wheel of Magnussen’s Haas led to another safety car and the second red flag, with only three laps to go.
That meant a new opportunity for Alonso and Sainz at the start from standing on the grid, and a risk for Verstappen, the one who had the most to lose by putting a victory that was doomed at stake, having managed to store more than 10 seconds of advantage. .
The two lap race. Supersprint format. All or nothing. Verstappen and Hamilton in the first row, Alonso and Sainz in the second. Gasly and Stroll in the third. All with soft.
The traffic lights went out, Verstappen maintained his first position, Hamilton in his, but Alonso, who was going on the outside, was touched on the rear tire by his friend Sainz, who came in a little behind when braking, stung as he had been with Gasly.
Result: spin of the Asturian, who was left in the opposite direction and relegated to 11th place. Gasly and Ocon’s parallel accident led to another red flag, the third, with only one lap to go.
Alonso got rid of the fiasco of the spin because the race commissioners decreed the fourth start in the same order as before the accident: Verstappen, Hamilton, Alonso, Sainz, Stroll, Checo Pérez… But this time, with a start relaunched behind the car of safety, no possibility of overtaking.
Therefore, without more surprises, without more accidents, without more neutralizations, after 2 hours and a half of the race, the last lap was a walk to say hello, and Verstappen signed his second victory of the course -first victory in Australia- to be more leader; Hamilton got on his first podium of the year; and Alonso subscribes to third place, third in a row with Aston Martin, which keeps him third in the World Cup behind Checo Pérez, .
For his part, Carlos Sainz was left without fourth position due to a 5-second penalty for “causing a collision” in contact with Alonso. The man from Madrid, who had a great race, dropped to 12th place.