Formula 1 2023 Australian Grand Prix results

Albon was running in sixth place when he had a high-speed spin into a barrier and his damaged car rolled back towards the edge of the track.
The first drivers on the scene, Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg, had virtually no warning – and only just missed the stricken Williams as they passed it at full speed. Hulkenberg admitted that he had a narrow escape.
"Holy moly, I mean seriously I had a ...

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Westacott fronted media on Monday morning in Melbourne following what is his final race at the helm of the Australian GP promoter.
Unsurprisingly the two key topics were a pair of significant safety issues that occurred yesterday – a fan injured by debris in the crowd and the premature track invasion at the end of the race.
A fan was hit by carbon fibre debris from Kevin Magnussen's car ...

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While there is a separate debate raging about whether or not standing restarts are a good idea at all after the late-race chaos in Melbourne, another problem emerged earlier in the event.
With the first red flag having been triggered by Alex Albon's crash on lap seven, the go-ahead for a standing restart was given by race control.
The rules require the safety car to lead the cars around in ...

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Following the second red flag period initiated by the right-rear tyre breaking free from the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, Sainz clipped Alonso during the race restart on the exit of the Turn 1 right-hander.
Two-time champion Alonso had lined up third for the third standing start of the heavily disrupted Melbourne race with his compatriot alongside on the second row of the grid.
Alonso moved to ...

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Leclerc was thrown off the track after contact with Lance Stroll when he attempted to pass the Aston Martin around the outside of Turn 3.
The Monegasque ended up beached in the outside gravel trap, ending his race after just three corners.
Leclerc's second retirement in three grands prix means he's still stuck on a mere six points. In Bahrain he retired with power unit troubles, which led to ...

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The Williams driver was running in an impressive sixth place in Melbourne in the early stages, and looked comfortably on course for a top ten finish.
However, on lap seven, he slid wide running through Turn 6 and then crashed into the barriers at Turn 7, before spinning back on to the track.
As well as putting himself out of the grand prix, Albon’s incident brought out the first of the ...

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An incident-packed Australian Grand Prix was, for those encumbered by a European time zone, certainly worth getting up for. Although another Max Verstappen victory was unsurprising given his and Red Bull's advantage in the early part of the 2023 Formula 1 season, late chaos threatened to derail the otherwise settled pecking order.
In F1's first triple red-flagged race (or quadruple, if one ...

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The Melbourne race was dominated by three in-race red flags, leading to lengthy delays and chaotic standing restarts, the latter of which eliminated several drivers.
On lap 7, Alex Albon's crash brought out the first safety car of the race, which prompted Mercedes' race leader George Russell to pit for hard tyres.
But soon after his pitstop, which dropped him to seventh, the red flag came ...

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The Dutchman had a comfortable lead when Kevin Magnussen crashed and the debris trail he left led race director Niels Wittich to call for a red flag with three laps to go.
Verstappen was thus left on pole for a potential two-lap sprint to the flag but with a strong risk of losing the lead given that he had got away badly at the two previous starts.
In the event, Verstappen did get to the ...

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The Dutchman had made a poor getaway from pole position and lost out to Mercedes driver George Russell into Turn 1.
Then, as Hamilton got a run on him out of Turn 2, he was cautious under braking for Turn 3 and that allowed his Mercedes rival to get his nose inside.
As Hamilton snatched second, he moved wide on the exit and Verstappen felt he had not been given the necessary racing room that ...

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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 big crash, passing Hamilton using DRS in the ultra-fast section ahead of Turn 9 – while Russell went out with an engine fire.
Despite a brief off, Verstappen looked to be cruising to ...

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In an unusual step, The Australian Grand Prix Corporation was formally summoned to the stewards after the conclusion of a chaotic third round of the 2023 world championship that was red-flagged on three occasions.
A fourth red flag was shown after Max Verstappen's Red Bull took the chequered flag after "a large group of spectators managed to break the security lines and accessed the track while ...

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Haas lodged a complaint in the aftermath of the Melbourne event after feeling that the regulations had not been correctly applied in determining the order for the final safety car restart that decided the finishing positions.
A chaotic second red-flag restart had brought about another stoppage, and F1's race control decided to determine the running order based on how the cars were before the ...

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Following a second red flag, caused by Kevin Magnussen clipping the wall to rip off the tyre from his Haas, Gasly lined up fifth for the race restart but locked up into Turn 1 to miss the rear of Fernando Alonso.
He careered across the run-off but rejoined alongside team-mate Esteban Ocon, who had formed on the grid in 10th, but then appeared to drift over the circuit to pinch his compatriot ...

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The race was halted for the first time on lap nine of 58 owing to a shunt for Alex Albon, who lost the rear of his Williams FW45 through Turn 7 to nose into the wall and bounce back over the kerbs.
While a safety car was deployed initially, the race was then red-flagged. The FIA justified this due to the amount of gravel and debris that needed clearing.
The grand prix was red-flagged twice ...

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...

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The Ferrari driver tangled with Fernando Alonso at the second race restart of a chaotic Australian GP, sending his fellow Spaniard into the wall at Turn 2 before the third red flag.
Amid the FIA's final restart decisions, Sainz lined up for the final lap in fourth but was given a five-second penalty for the incident, so when the race ended under safety car conditions he was relegated to 12th ...

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The American outfit appeared to have been the biggest gainer from a chaotic second red-flag restart as Nico Hulkenberg moved up to fourth place on the road as a number of front runners crashed out in the chaotic first few corners.
With a third red flag being brought out, the FIA elected to go for another restart, although this time it was behind a safety car and the cars only went around to ...

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In the climax to a chaotic and controversially handled race, Gasly had lined up fifth for the second red-flag restart but locked up into Turn 1 to avoid clipping Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin.
That forced him over the gravel run-off and as he rejoined alongside Ocon, who restarted in 10th, drifted over the track to the exit wall to initiate the contact that wiped out both cars.
Despite the ...

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With the Dutchman clearly knowing that there was a lot to lose if he made a poor getaway for the second red-flag restart, he made sure to place his car in the most aggressive spot possible.
But as well as angling himself slightly towards the right to shut off rivals getting him down the inside, Verstappen also pulled incredibly far forward.
In fact, overhead footage of the Red Bull car and ...

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The seven-time world champion climbed from third on the grid to lead in the early stages of the race, having robustly passed a slow-starting Verstappen on the inside into Turn 3.
That move handed him second at the time to leading team-mate George Russell, who then dropped to seventh as a result of pitting under a safety car that morphed into the first of three red-flag stoppages.
Hamilton ...

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Verstappen had dominated most of the proceedings despite losing the initial lead from pole to Mercedes' George Russell and Hamilton, before a first red flag caused by Alex Albon crashing out solo and putting debris and gravel across the road.
At the second standing start Hamilton maintained his lead, but as soon as the DRS overtaking aid was reactivated, Verstappen blasted by into a lead he ...

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Albon was running in sixth place but lost the rear of the FW45 through Turn 7 to career across the gravel trap and nose heavily into the barrier before bouncing back towards the asphalt.
The Thai-Briton lost the front wing and damaged the rear wing in the immediate impact before the car came to rest over the kerbs and was unable to continue.
An initial safety car was deployed before the race ...

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The purpose of the meeting was not to have a formal vote, but in effect to get a mandate from the teams for the FIA to press ahead with finalising the regulatory details in time for Baku.
The rules will also have to be checked and tested by the team sporting directors in the sporting advisory committee, before being formally ratified ahead of the round, from 28-30 April.
Various potential ...

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Bottas and Perez were due to start on the last row after qualifying 19th and 20th respectively and their teams have decided to make changes to the suspension set-up ahead of Sunday's Melbourne race.
Red Bull has also taken the opportunity to replace Perez's energy store and control electronics.
Both power unit items are Perez's third examples of 2023, with only two of each allowed. Given ...

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Red Bull's Max Verstappen will start the race from pole position ahead of Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will line up fourth ahead of the top Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
When is the 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix?
The 2023 F1 Australian GP will begin at 3pm local time (+10 GMT) at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne.

Date: Sunday, April ...

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The dominant winner in Melbourne last season, Leclerc will line up for the race in seventh after lapping 0.637s off the pace of polesitter Max Verstappen, while Sainz will start from fifth.
While Ferrari has opted against introducing upgraded aero parts for this weekend, unlike Mercedes and Red Bull, Leclerc still shouldered responsibility for the lacklustre result, saying he "wasn't driving ...

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George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will start second and third in Melbourne, helped by a disastrous qualifying session for Red Bull's Sergio Perez that left the Mexican in 20th and last place on the grid.
The performance represents a clear step forward after the first two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, which led the team to investigate a change of car concept.
Wolff stressed that despite ...

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However, the Spaniard says that the direction the team has taken has also made him more comfortable with the car over one lap.
Both Sainz and his team-mate Charles Leclerc faded badly in the Saudi Arabian GP after pitting for the hard tyres.
The team has spent the days since then investigating the issue and came to Melbourne with some potential solutions in terms of set-up.
It also opted ...

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After George Russell and Lewis Hamilton grabbed second and third on the grid for the Australian Grand Prix, both drivers said the result was far beyond expectations after its difficult start to the season.
But Alonso, who has qualified fourth in Melbourne, sees things very differently and believes that Mercedes has a much better package in the W14 than it has been making out.
Asked whether ...

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Verstappen will start ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.
Australian Grand Prix qualifying results: Verstappen on pole from ...

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Russell ended up just 0.236s behind Verstappen in Q3 at Albert Park, with his team-mate Lewis Hamilton third in the second Mercedes, a somewhat surprise result for the Black Arrows squad after its difficult start to the new campaign and having been 0.6s off the pace in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Although Verstappen heads into Sunday’s race as the heavy favourite for victory, Russell ...

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What had been a consistent 0.4-second deficit in the dry to pacesetter Max Verstappen across Friday and Saturday morning practice in Melbourne was suddenly slashed in half right when it counted.
At the start of a second season of ground-effect struggles for the eight-time constructors' champion, George Russell hustled the limited W14 round just 0.236s short of the 1m16.732s Red Bull benchmark ...

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After an intriguing silly season saga last summer, Brown snapped up 2021 Formula 2 champion Piastri to replace fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who had struggled to match Norris in his two challenging years with the team.
While Piastri was a highly regarded prospect in the paddock, the decision still carried some risk as the 21-year-old had not even tested for the team before being ...

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Norris endured a messy qualifying session at Albert Park and took 13th in Q2 following slip-ups on his hotlaps, three tenths off Williams's Alex Albon who was the last driver to make the top 10 cut-off.
When Norris was asked by Motorsport.com whether his mistakes were down to a car that's inherently hard to drive or down to him to overdriving the MCL60 to chase performance that isn't ...

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This imposing wooden structure was the visible symbol of a new global partnership that MotoGP rights holder Dorna has struck with fast-growing Spanish beer brand Estrella Galicia.
Estrella Galicia's new hospitality unit is designed as a networking hub as well as to increase brand awareness.
With this agreement, Estrella Galicia is putting the emphasis on positive impact, a philosophy that ...

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Perez had a disrupted FP3 as he joined the session 20 minutes late, and he ended up over half a second down on team-mate Max Verstappen after two push laps were wrecked by locking up under braking.
Speaking after qualifying, Perez explained that "we thought we fixed that" prior to qualifying, only for his RB19 to skate into the gravel on his first push lap in Q1 at Turn 3 after locking his ...

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With the Red Bull of Sergio Perez eliminated in Q1, Alonso was a favourite to qualify on the front row for Sunday's Melbourne race alongside overwhelming favourite Max Verstappen, who duly took pole.
But behind the world champion, Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton proved the surprise package of qualifying by beating Alonso to second and third respectively.
Despite being ...

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The Williams driver proved to be one of the major surprises of a close fight for grid positions in Melbourne as he secured eighth place on the grid, just one spot behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
With him readily admitting his team does not have one of the fastest cars in F1 right now, Albon says that the performance owed almost everything to the way that he and his engineers got on top of ...

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Russell pinched second on the grid in the dying moments of qualifying in Melbourne as he ran 0.236s adrift of pacesetter Max Verstappen, who led the way for Red Bull courtesy of a 1m16.732s lap.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, will head the second row in third place after running 0.372s behind.
That result marked Mercedes’ best Saturday of its trying season as it awaits significant ...

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