F1 Australian GP: Verstappen wins from Hamilton after late red-flag mayhem

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 would ultimately not lose but with plenty of drama and confusing scenes to come.

The first red flag meant none of the leaders completed any in-race pitstops as they were able to change their starting tyres under the stoppage, which was what cemented Russell's place in the pack from which he charged before his engine expired in flames at the end of the event's first third.

For most of the race, there was little action at the front as Verstappen dropped Hamilton and worked his way to a 10-second advantage that was only cut when the Dutchman briefly ran off the road at the penultimate corner and complaining about front locking.

At this point, Hamilton was holding Fernando Alonso at arm's length while the teams worked out if their charges could get to the finish without requiring new tyres.

They were upping their pace – exchanging fastest laps with Verstappen ahead – when the concluding farce kicked off, starting with Kevin Magnussen bizarrely running off the track by himself exiting the second corner and striking the nearby wall with his right rear.

This fell off as he headed towards Turn 3 and that, plus Magnussen stopping inside Turn 4, led to the race being stopped again, with a two-lap sprint set to conclude the action.

When this started, Verstappen swept across Hamilton's bows and covered the inside line to Turn 1, from where Alonso exited ahead of Carlos Sainz and was then tagged by the Ferrari and spun towards the wall Magnussen had tagged.

Behind, chaos reigned as Pierre Gasly locked hard behind Sainz and went off at Turn 2 along with several other cars and as the Frenchman rejoined he swung right and took out team-mate Esteban Ocon, ruining what had looked to be a very strong result for Alpine and Gasly in particular as he had been fighting Sainz for most of the race.

Before the red flags came out for a third time, Lance Stroll slid into the gravel at Turn 3 while fighting Sainz, appearing to also destroy Aston Martin's previously excellent positions.

But after the race was suspended, crucially before Verstappen had passed the first sector timing line, a 30-minute delay followed with one lap remaining from the 58 total as the FIA worked out how the event would conclude.

It eventually decided, much like at Silverstone in 2022, that the previous grid restart order would be used minus the cars that could not take a fourth and final restart.

This was a safety car rolling start that meant no overtaking and so Verstappen blasted to the win under no threat from Hamilton and the restored Alonso fourth.

They were followed home by Sainz but he had already been handed a five-second time addition penalty for hitting Alonso at the third standing restart – this event matching Mugello 2020 and Jeddah 2021 for such scenes.

Sainz, who raged about not being able to explain his case to the stewards, therefore fell to 12th in the results, making it a point-less weekend down under for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc had retired in the Turn 3 gravel way back on the first lap after turning in and finding Lance Stroll on his inside and getting turned around in what was swiftly declared a racing incident.

Sergio Perez's charge from a pitlane start had provided most of the action during the main part of the race, as he put in pass after pass on slower rivals into the fast Turn 9/10 left-right swoops.

He had reached seventh by the second red flag but was very lucky to end up fifth as he had been attacking Gasly in the third restart chaos and went deep into the gravel and fell to the rear of the pack before being boosted back up by the FIA's ruling.

Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg put in a thrilling battle during the pre-Magnussen red flag events and they ended up sixth and seventh ahead of home hero Oscar Piastri.

Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10 ahead of Valtteri Bottas and the penalised Sainz.

Cla	Driver		Chassis	Engine	Gap
1	Max Verstappen		Red Bull	Red Bull
2	Lewis Hamilton		Mercedes	Mercedes	0.179
3	Fernando Alonso		Aston Martin	Mercedes	0.769
4	Lance Stroll		Aston Martin	Mercedes	3.082
5	Sergio Perez		Red Bull	Red Bull	3.320
6	Lando Norris		McLaren	Mercedes	3.701
7	Nico Hulkenberg		Haas	Ferrari	4.939
8	Oscar Piastri		McLaren	Mercedes	5.382
9	Zhou Guanyu		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	5.713
10	Yuki Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	Red Bull	6.052
11	Valtteri Bottas		Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	6.513
12	Carlos Sainz		Ferrari	Ferrari	6.594
13	Pierre Gasly		Alpine	Renault
14	Esteban Ocon		Alpine	Renault
15	Nyck de Vries		AlphaTauri	Red Bull
16	Logan Sargeant		Williams	Mercedes
	Kevin Magnussen		Haas	Ferrari
	George Russell		Mercedes	Mercedes
	Alex Albon		Williams	Mercedes
	Charles Leclerc		Ferrari	Ferrari
View full results