2023 Australian Grand Prix

## Lap Leaders

The **2023 Australian Grand Prix** (officially known as the **Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2023**) is the third race of the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, held at Albert Park Circuit on the weekend of March 30 to April 2, 2023.

## Background

### Championship standings before the race

Going into the weekend, Max Verstappen leads the World Drivers' Championship with 44 points, 1 point from his teammate Sergio Pérez, second, and 14 from Fernando Alonso, third. Red Bull Racing, with 87 points, leads the Constructors' Championship from Aston Martin and Mercedes by 49 points.

### Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

### Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C2, C3, and C4 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

### Track changes

Following the 2021 redevelopment of the Albert Park Circuit and the removal of the turn 9–10 chicane, a fourth DRS zone was proposed and installed between turns 8–9. After the first day of practice session during the 2022 Australian Grand Prix weekend, the new DRS zone was scrapped due to safety concerns raised by some of the drivers. The Grand Prix chief Andrew Westacott told Melbourne's *Herald Sun* that the DRS zone would be reimplemented for this edition after receiving positive feedback from the FIA and Formula One. Compared to the previous edition when four DRS zones were initially added, the first DRS detection point was moved further back, being positioned 40 metres (130 ft) after turn 6. As a result, the first DRS activation point was moved further back, being positioned 130 metres (430 ft) after panel 11.

## Qualifying

### Qualifying Report

Qualifying was held on April 1, 2023 at 16:00 local time (UTC+11).

## Race

### Race report

he race was held on April 2, 2023, starting at 15:00 local time (UTC+10).

George Russell passed pole-sitter Max Verstappen, who suffered wheelspin, to take the lead of the race, Hamilton passed him further round the circuit. Charles Leclerc spun into the gravel at turn three following to contact with Lance Stroll, resulting in the safety car being called out.

The race restarted on lap 4. Three laps later, on lap 7, Alexander Albon lost control of his car and crashed heavily at turn seven, causing the safety car to be called out again; Russell changed his tyres for fresh hard compounds, allowing his teammate Lewis Hamilton to inherit the lead. Carlos Sainz Jr. followed suit moments later. The race was red-flagged to allow marshals to clean up the debris left by Albon's car and gravel that had been strewn on track. As Russell and Sainz had just changed their tyres in the safety car period, this meant they lost out, as rivals were able to change their tyres during the stoppage.

Hamilton kept his lead at the second restart, but would soon lose the lead into turn 9 as Verstappen overtook him with DRS. Russell overtook Gasly for fourth on lap 14, with Sainz overtaking Lance Stroll on the following lap. On lap 18, Russell's caught fire, causing Mercedes's first mechanical retirement of the season and causing a brief virtual safety car period. Verstappen would go on to lead the race comfortably, despite a brief moment on lap 46 where he understeered into the final corners, managing to recover and maintain first, despite losing several seconds. By the closing stages of the race, Verstappen led over ten seconds over Hamilton. The race was red-flagged once again on lap 55 after Kevin Magnussen's right-rear wheel made contact with the wall at turn two, damaging his rear suspension and causing the tyre to detach.

The race was restarted again with Verstappen keeping his lead. Sainz pushed Fernando Alonso into a spin in turn one, the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon ended their races in the wall, and Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant found themselves in the gravel and out of the race; Stroll, despite also running into the gravels, managed to continue. The race was red-flagged for a third time.

The marshals restarted the race on the final lap in the order of the previous start, minus the cars that had been eliminated, as the cars had not yet the reached the first timing line. The race ended behind the safety car; Max Verstappen won his first Australian Grand Prix ahead of Hamilton and Alonso; Pérez finished fifth after a pit lane start. Oscar Piastri finished his home race in eighth and in the points alongside teammate Lando Norris, marking McLaren's first points finish of the season. AlphaTauri scored their first points of the season courtesy of Yuki Tsunoda's 10th-place finish.

### Post-Race

After an investigation of Gasly's crash with Ocon, no further action was taken. The stewards deemed that no invesigation was necessary into the opening lap contact between Stroll and Leclerc.

During the race, Sainz was handed a five-second penalty for the collision with Alonso on the second restart. Following the race, this penalty was added to his elapsed race time, which dropped him from fourth place down to twelfth place in the final classification. Sainz criticised the penalty, stating that it was "the most unfair penalty I've ever seen in my life". Alonso, with whom Sainz collided to earn the penalty, agreed that it was "too harsh". Haas lodged a protest following the race regarding its provisional classification, where both Hülkenberg and Haas could have achieved their first podium finish with Sainz's five-second penalty had the last restart order been determined differently. The protest was rejected by the racing stewards.

The FIA came under scrutiny from several drivers due to its handling of the red flags and restarts, which had affected the strategies of Russell, Sainz, Verstappen and Hülkenberg; the Haas driver had been running as high as fourth place before the third red flag came out, with the subsequent restart dropping him down to seventh.

## Notes

1. ↑ Sergio Pérez failed to set a time within the 107% requirement. He was permitted to race at the stewards' discretion.
2. ↑ Includes one point for fastest lap.
3. ↑ Carlos Sainz finished fourth, but he received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Fernando Alonso.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Nyck de Vries, Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.