Australia never disappoints and today was not going to be less, as a chaotic race from start to finish, with up to three red flags, dictated most of the race. But some things never change as Max Verstappen once again came first, followed by Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
The Grand Prix took a premature turn to the race when only a few curves from the start, Charles Leclerc was sent into the gravel after getting in contact with Lance Stroll. A few laps after, Alex Albon lost his front wing and the safety car got deployed just to get the first red flag of the race mintues after.
Aston Martin could have had a terrible ending to what was in the end a happy ending. Nico Hulkenberg crashed into the walls and forced the FIA to show another red flag. At that moment, only 4 laps were remaining and the British team had secured 3rd and 6th position.
As soon as the track got cleared, the race restarted and the chaos began. Alonso who was looking to overtake the Mercedes and Red Bull, Carlos Sainz spun his fellow Spanish friend around and two turns later Stroll drove into the gravel and potentially both drivers out of the race.
"The red flag was not necessary"
Their angel guard showed up as both Alpine crashed into each other and once again forced the race to stop with only a couple laps to go. “Check it out because it happened in Silverstone a year ago y they restarted it, check it out quick!”, said the Spanish driver as soon as he was informed that the red flag was official.
Even after the race and rearranging of positions, Alonso was still not satisfied with the FIA decision of waving the red flag for Hulkenberg´s crash, “I still think it was not necessary. There was a car stopped in turn 4 and safety cars are there for a reason, to slow down the race”.
Therefore, because there was not enough information from the 1st sector restart to conclude a decision, drivers such as Alonso were put back into his original starting position (P3) as well as Stroll who took advantage of Sainz´s penalty (+5s) to climb up to 4th place. “I did not know who hit me. Later on I found out it was Carlos, but it´s not like he wanted to hit anyone”, stated Alonso who tried to take the blame away from his fellow friend.
"I could not attack Hamilton"
A crazy 58 laps but a P3 that Aston Martin will happily take. Especially as only 12 drivers managed to finish the race, “It seemed like we had the podium and the red flag got us a bit by surprise. Then I got hit, was out of the points system… then I got back in, it was a roller-coaster of emotion".
Moreover, the Spanish driver keeps putting his team in the podium position and both parties are very happy to do so as Jeddah and Melbourne were the most difficult races so far in this year, “I am very happy for the podium, which makes it three in a row. During the race I could not attack Hamilton”, praised Alonso. He also squashed all the beef previous to the race and praised him, “He drove fantastically, like a champion".
To end this weekend, Alonso had nothing but nice words for his team, “The car is very reliable, touch wood. Besides Lance´s problem in Saudi Arabia, everything is going well and it was important to finish P3 and P4.”
Teams now have time to think about their strategies for their next race as it is in a months time in Azerbaijan.
