Max Verstappen won his first Australian GP and Red Bull’s first at Albert Park since 2011 in a topsy turvy race.
On the opening lap and it was important for Russell starting in 2nd to get the better start and that’s what he got has he divebombed ahead of Verstappen and led the race after turn 1.
His teammate then got passed the defending champion at turn 3. Not even half a lap in and it was a 1-2 Mercedes. Game On! However, that wouldn’t be the case for Charles Leclerc as the Ferrari driver spun off into the gravel and it was all over at Turn 3.
This brought out the safety car and your top 5 was Russell Hamilton Verstappen Sainz & Alonso. The Safety Car was in and George timed his restart perfectly and lead the field away. This led to a proper three way duel between the two Mercedes and the Red Bull.
But that battle would be brought to an abrupted end as Williams Racing driver Alex Albon running in P6 crashed into the barrier at Turn 7 on Lap 7 and was out of the race.
This brought out the red flag due to gravel on the track which for the likes of Russell and Sainz it screwed both of them as they came into the pits under the safety car and both tumbled them down the field.
Your top 3 was Hamilton, Verstappen & Alonso. With all drivers allocated to fresh tyres under red flag procedures, the race restarted on Lap 10.
On Lap 12 Verstappen took the race lead over Hamilton with a little help of DRS and was starting to pull the gap over his rivals.
Russell was now running in P4 was making his move up the field then He was forced to retire as fire and smoke emerged from his car. His day went from bad to worse and had to retire the car on Lap 18.
After a brief stint of the VSC the race resumed on Lap 20. Checo Perez who started in the pit lane after a poor quali session was into the points as he moved past Piastri and Tsunoda.
Afterwards the race fell a bit flat as all the drivers where maintaining there tyres. Then we had late drama when Kevin Magnussen hit the barrier in sector 1 losing nis rear right tyre bringing out the red flag for the second time in this race.
It would lead to a final 2 lap shootout to finish the race. The lights went out and drama happened! Alonso got clipped by Sainz and was out of points, both alpines crash out, Stroll was in the gravel at turn 3 and the red flag was for the third time.
More drama unfolded soon afterwards as the stewards decided that the lap would be voided and everyone would retain their positions. Sainz would still receive a 5 second time penalty for the incident with Alonso and both Alpines would not take part in the restart due to damage.
Verstappen would finally win the race under the yellow flags once we the restart happened with Hamilton 2nd & Alonso keeping hold to that 3rd place respectively.
Stroll, Perez, Norris, Hulkenberg Piastri (getting his first ever F1 points), Zhou and Tsunoda rounded up the top 10.
