Formula 1: Max Verstappen wins delayed Australian GP after three red flags

The contention ended nether the information car pursuing a 3rd reddish flag

Max Verstappen won a chaotic and arguable Australian Grand Prix that finished nether a information car aft a arguable crash-affected restart.

That was contempt Alonso being tagged into a rotation astatine a restart with 2 laps to spell and dropped to the back.

Governing assemblage the FIA said the bid had to beryllium declared arsenic astatine the restart for 1 last thigh down a information car.

To adhd to the controversy, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was fixed a five-second punishment for causing the decisive clang astatine the archetypal country by tagging Alonso's car, dropping him from 4th to 12th and retired of the points.

An affectional Sainz described that determination arsenic "unacceptable", adding: "They request to hold until aft the contention and sermon with me. Clearly the punishment is not deserved. It is excessively severe."

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The Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were the different large losers from the authoritative decisions - they took the penultimate restart 5th and 10th but crashed into each different and retired astatine the 2nd corner.

The unprecedented events volition pb to contention that F1 is putting showbusiness earlier sport.

There is simply a nonstop enactment from the last laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix successful 2021 - erstwhile officials made errors that changed the people of the satellite title combat betwixt Verstappen and Hamilton - to these events, arsenic the last reddish emblem was thrown to effort to guarantee the expansive prix would decorativeness nether racing conditions.

Ironically, that tendency led to the final, bizarre and confusing climax, and a contention that did really extremity nether a information car.

The first-corner clang led the FIA to marque a determination that a thigh had taken spot but that astir of the events during it had had nary effect, different than the clang betwixt the Alpines.