Credit: The Sun/ Rex
After a controversial crash-affected restart and a chaotic and controversial Australian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen claimed victory.
Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes followed the Red Bull driver home to secure the podium.
That was true even though Alonso lost position after being knocked into a spin at a restart with two laps remaining.
According to FIA rules, the vehicles had to complete a final lap behind the safety car after the finishing positions were determined from the most recent restart.
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari was given a five-second time penalty for tagging Alonso’s car at the first corner, which resulted in the decisive crash and dropped Alonso from fourth to 12th and out of the points, adding to the controversy.
An emotional Sainz described that decision as “unacceptable”, adding: “They need to wait until after the race and discuss with me. Clearly the penalty is not deserved. It is too severe.”
The other two major losers from the official rulings were the Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who took the penultimate restart in fifth and tenth place but collided with each other and withdrew at the second corner.
There will be debate over whether F1 is putting showbusiness over sport in light of the unprecedented happenings.
There is a clear connection between these incidents and the final laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021, when officials made mistakes that altered the outcome of Verstappen and Hamilton’s battle for the world championship. At that race, the final red flag was raised to try to ensure that the competition would end in racing conditions.
Sadly, that desire resulted in the odd and perplexing finale and a race that was ultimately stopped by a safety car.
The FIA decided that a lap had occurred but that, aside from the incident between the Alpines, the most of the events during it had no bearing.
Verstappen’s victory increased his championship lead to 15 points, and Sergio Perez’s fifth-place finish after the Mexican began from the back helped as well.