Australia GP : Max wins chaotic race

A race marred by two red flags finally end with Max taking the chequered flag in Australia. Lewis Hamilton came P2 and Alonso P3.

Crazy race in Australia

The race was eventful right from the get to. As the lights went out George Russell pipped pole sitter Max Verstappen at turn 1 to take the lead of the race. Then Lance Stroll clipped Charles LeClerc, sending him into the gravel to end his race and bringing the safety car. Then on lap 6 Alex Albon had a nasty shunt which first brought the safety car and many cars including George Russell took to the pits for a tyre change. But it was soon turned into a Red Flag where everyone got a chance to change the tyres and Russell was relegated to P7.

However there was more bad luck in store for the Brit. He had an engine failure, which is rare for Mercedes and had to retire his car. Meanwhile Max easily overtook Lewis Hamilton and continued leading the race right till the end. Lewis was closely followed by Fernando Alonso who kept pushing but could not overtake the seven time world champion. Max meanwhile just flew away, creating a gap of more than 10 seconds between him and Lewis in P2.

Another red flag in Australia

The race nicely settled in a steady pace. But then there was more chaos in store. Kevin Magnussen clipped his right rear into the wall, which completely shredded him tyre and there was debris all over the place. This brought another red flag and a race re-start, just two laps before the race end. This race restart was even more chaotic. Carlos Sainz clipped Alonso and sent him to the gravel. He was given a 5-second penalty for the same and this took him from P5 to P12 – Ferrari thus getting no points from this race. Pierre Gasly had a brilliant race till now and was comfortable in P5 position. But then in the chaotic start he bumped into his team Esteban Ocon, ending the race for both of them.

Double points for McLaren

In all of this both the McLarens found themselves in points at the end of the race. Lando Norris scored his first points of the season and home boy Oscar Piastri scored in his home race. Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda found themselves in the points too. Checo did a decent recovery job starting from the pit lane and finishing P5. Aston Martin would be very happy for P3 and P4 for Alonso and Stroll respectively. However it was Max who was simply unstoppable in his formidable Red Bull. All the other teams have a lot of work to do to catch up to the Bulls.

Australia Race Classification: Max wins by a mile