Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix on April 2 after two late red flags and many crashes threw the race into chaos. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton came in second, followed by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Double defending champion Verstappen was leading Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with a few laps left when Haas driver Kevin Magnussen crashed into a wall, leaving debris on the track and stopping the race. The cars returned to the grid with fresh tyres for a two-lap sprint, but in a frenzied restart, Williams driver Logan Sargeant drove into the back of AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries to knock both of them into gravel at turn one. Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon then crashed into each other to leave a trail of debris on the track and trigger another red flag, the third and last of the race.
It was then decided the race would finish with one lap behind a safety car in the order of the previous start without the cars that had crashed out. This allowed Verstappen to claim his second win of the season ahead of Hamilton with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso third in a race. Eight of the 20 participating cars failed to finish.
Red Bull now has won all three Grands Prix in the new season, a record for the team, resuming its dominance after their runaway success in 2022.
