Verstappen was quick to get on the radio and complain that Lewis Hamilton forced him off-track at Turn 3 - Red Bull boss Christian Horner later said Hamilton was like a “missile” - but he settled into third place under the early safety car called for Charles Leclerc’s beached Ferrari. A “messy” getaway off the line, to quote the Dutchman, caused him to slip behind both Mercedes on the opening lap, giving George Russell the lead. The race’s opening stint didn’t go Verstappen’s way at all.

Now the dust has settled, and the sun has set in Melbourne, we can unpick the chaos and tell the story of a race that oscillated between slow burner and late thriller - and that reminded us how radically the rules of this sport can reshape its outcomes. (“What is the only F1 race to have three red flags?”)īut we’re still in the first draft of history, and the first order of business is making sense of it all. It’s a race that will fuel the ongoing debate about F1’s rules around red flags and race restarts and is likely to be the answer to trivia questions in years to come. Sunday’s Australian GP will be remembered as one of the craziest races in recent F1 history.

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