The Australian Grand Prix featured tons of chaos on Sunday at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, where Max Verstappen came out on top.
The race got off to a chaotic start when Lance Stroll made contact with Charles Leclerc on Turn 3 of lap 1, forcing Leclerc, the defending winner, to retire.
Culpa de Stroll o Leclerc??? #AusGP #F1
En el grupo de wattsap @aribesomi me pelea 😭pic.twitter.com/7uwBwE5hre
— Diego Luciano (@Diego_Luciano_) April 2, 2023
That was just the beginning of the chaos, as the race would see three red flags and have 8 total cars retire before the end of the race.
The most chaotic of the red flags occurred on restart of the second-to-last lap of the race where Alpine Racing drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon crashed into each other.
Accidente entre Pierre Gasly y Esteban Ocon, lo bueno que son amigos y no creo que haya problemas y este choque vaya a mas para Alpine noo?… pic.twitter.com/CYycViKmIX
— Carlos Lamb (@CarlosLamb_) April 2, 2023
Both Gasly and Ocon were firmly entrenched in the top ten with two laps to go and were ensured of capturing some points for their team prior to the crash, which forced them to retire.
Additionally, on the same lap, Carlos Sainz was assessed a 5-second penalty for causing a collision with Fernando Alonso, resulting in Sainz finishing outside the top ten.
Despite all the chaos, Max Verstappen ended up winning his first Australian Grand Prix. After Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton finished second and Alonso was third.
Sergio Perez, who experienced technical issues affecting the brake balance on his car, slid off the track in the first round of qualifying and started the race from the pit but was able to climb all the back to P5 while also securing the fastest lap and taking Driver of the Day honors.
Red Bull has now secured three consecutive first-place finishes. There are still 20 more races in 2023, but with Ferrari continuing to falter, it will be interesting to see if any other team is able to step up and challenge them.
