Keep up to date with all the highlights of the race in our post Live F1 Updates: Australia 2023 which outlines the race as it unfolds.

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FINAL PODIUM

  1. Verstappen
  2. Hamilton
  3. Alonso

LAP 58/58: CHEQUERED FLAG

Race Control stepped in to calm the chaos. Since the drivers did not complete a sector, there’s no real order to restart with. This means that the cars will be ordered according to the last restart. This ensures Verstappen’s win with Hamilton in second place. Alonso gets reinstated to P3.

Carlos Sainz also got a 5-second penalty that saw him tumble down the order to P12 since the last lap was behind the safety car.

The final order saw Max in first followed by Hamilton, Alonso, Stroll, Perez, Norris, Hulkenburg, Piastri, Zhou, Tsunoda, Bottas, and Sainz.

LAP 57/58: CHAOTIC RESTART

Verstappen cut off Hamilton to secure first place. However, chaos erupted and started with Alonso spinning off. Both Alpines crashed into each other and took themselves out of the race. This induced another Red Flag. Sainz claimed P3 with Hulkenburg in P4 and Tsunoda in P5. Perez dropped back to P10 while Gasly, Ocon, De Vries, and Sargeant retired.

It looks like there won’t be any more racing today. However, the cars will need to go out for a formation lap to complete the race. No overtaking will be allowed, but the order is now in question. Either the order will be reset or the new order will stand with Sainz in P3.

LAP 56/58: SETTING UP THE SPRINT

All cars have come into the pits to reset for the 2-lap sprint race. It seems like all cars would ideally want to go to brand-new sets of soft tyres. However, not all teams have a fresh set of soft tyres available. This will see some teams put on scrubbed sets.

LAP 55/58: RED FLAG

The Red Flag has come out and allows all the cars to change their tyres with no time loss. This will see all the teams put on fresh softs for a sprint race to the finish. There are only two laps of racing that will take place. However, Verstappen’s lead has reduced to nothing. This opens the door for Hamilton and Alonso to challenge for the win.

LAP 54/58: HAAS CRASH

The Haas of Kevin Magnussen managed to tag the wall at the exit of turn 2. This brought out the safety car since Kevin lost his tyre completely on track. With just a few laps to go, the jury is out on whether racing will resume. However, Piastri came in to change to soft tyres.

LAP 48/58: MAX OFF TRACK

While Max is comfortably in the lead, he managed to lock his front tyres and go off track for a moment. Luckily he had an 11-second lead to cushion the blow. However, the brief tour cost him around 4 seconds. This sees his lead reduce to 7 seconds over Hamilton, who’s just under 2 seconds in front of Alonso.

LAP 45/58: PEREZ IN P7

Sergio Perez found it difficult to pass Lando Norris over the last few laps. Lando was driving incredibly and managed to keep Perez at bay. However, the DRS of the Red Bull proved unstoppable as Perez cruised past Lando to claim P8.

Perez then cruised up behind the Haas of Hulkenburg. The pass was much easier with DRS and brought Lando back into play behind the Haas. This sees Perez in P7 with Hulkenburg and Lando behind.

LAP 40/58: HAMILTON vs ALONSO

The gap between Alonso and Hamilton has varied from 1.2 seconds to 3 seconds over the last few laps. Hamilton was told not to push too hard since Aston Martin is not planning to pit again for the rest of the race. Verstappen remains comfortably in the lead and boasts around 10 seconds between him and Hamilton in P2. Hamilton managed to snatch the fastest lap of the race twice as he tries to keep the distance between him and Alonso.

Perez is closing up to Norris in P8 and now has DRS.

LAP 28/58: PEREZ IN THE POINTS

McLaren has managed to improve their luck by jumping up the field during the Red Flag. Norris is showing decent pace and is matching the cars in front of him. While Lando is comfortably in P8, Piastri is fighting with Ocon and Tsunoda for the final point. Ocon managed to overtake Piastri and Tsunoda, but Piastri is still putting pressure on Tsunoda for P11.

Perez has also been on a roll and now sees himself in the points. Perez is in P9 and can eventually make his way into the Top 5.

LAP 18/58: RUSSELL STOPS ON TRACK

Russell gets overtaken by Gasly and seems to have an engine issue. The engine caught on fire temporarily and managed to bring out the Virtual Safety Car. Alonso has been making up ground to Hamilton and had DRS. The Virtual Safety Car gives Hamilton some breathing room for now.

Sainz is showing incredible pace and is lapping faster than Max Verstappen. Perez is making up places and now finds himself in P12.

LAP 13/58: VERSTAPPEN TAKES THE LEAD

Max Verstappen cruised up to Hamilton with DRS. It didn’t take long to sail past Hamilton with DRS before turn 9. The DRS is so powerful that Max managed to pull a 2-second lead on Hamilton in just a few corners. However, both Max and Hamilton have incredible pace and have put around 3 seconds between them and the rest of the grid.

Russell makes his way past Gasly to claim P4.

LAP 10/58: RACE RESUMES

All drivers lined back up on the grid for a standing start. All the front runners are on hard tyres so it may take a while for them to warm them up to temperature. Hamilton maintains the lead into turn 1 while Russell overtakes Stroll and Hulkenburg into P5.

LAP 9/58: RED FLAG

The Red Flag came out after Russell made his pit stop. This means that everyone can pit and Russell has effectively lost the position and will restart in an effective P7. This puts Hamilton in the best position but still leaves him vulnerable to Max that’s not that far behind.

The McLarens didn’t pit with the rest of the pack and used the Red Flag to leapfrog up to P9 and P10. Hulkenburg finds himself in P6 with Gasly ahead in P5. Russell fell to P7 while Tsunoda is in P8.

The race is set to resume in 10 minutes with the front runners being Hamilton, Verstappen, and Alonso.

LAP 8/58: ALBON CRASHES

DRS has been enabled and brought on the excitement. Hamilton closed up quickly to Russell while Max did the same to Hamilton. However, Alex Albon cut the duel short with a massive shunt. This brought out the safety car but also induced the first pit stops for the front runners. Russell pits from first place to put on a fresh set of hard tyres that should take him to the end.

LAP 2/58: MERCEDES IN THE LEAD

George Russell dives perfectly into turn 1 to take the lead from Max Verstappen. Sir Lewis Hamilton follows Russell into the next turn and snatches P2 from Verstappen. While Max had a good start, it seems like the Mercedes of Russell had the better line. Hamilton was fighting Alonso initially but managed to tuck behind Verstappen and take the inside line into turn 3.

At the same time, Stroll managed to tangle with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Charles pulled along Stroll and didn’t leave much room for the Aston Martin. This brought out the safety car.

FORMATION LAP

All 20 cars leave the grid to give their tyres a final warmup. It’s interesting to note the different tyre strategies at play. Sergio Perez is on the hard tyre while all the front runners are on mediums. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll are both on scrubbed mediums, hoping that the heat cycle would help improve performance off the line.

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