Category: Motor Racing

Sergio Perez claimed pole position at the Miami Grand Prix over Fernando Alonso, as Charles Leclerc brought out a red flag and prevented anyone from improving.

The Red Bull driver logged a time of one minute, 26.841 seconds thanks to the first flying runs in Q3 to take the early advantage on the timing board, as his teammate Max Verstappen went wide through Turn 5 and aborted his initial run – retreating to the pitlane.

Leclerc, meanwhile, tapped the wall on the exit of Turn 16 and then suffered a lock-up at the following corner, which proved only enough for seventh after the initial set of runs.

The two thus had work to do in order to move themselves up the order, and began their final runs to try and overturn Perez’s bid for a second pole position of the season.

While Leclerc began his lap in aggressive fashion, he overcooked it on the exit of Turn 6 and lost the rear to spin into the wall. This immediately brought out a set of double-waved yellows in the opening sector, but the session was red-flagged with one minute and 36 seconds left on the clock and Q3 was not restarted.

This confirmed Perez’s pole and denied Verstappen, who had topped both Q1 and Q2, a chance to bite back for pole, much to the defending champion’s frustration.

Alonso claimed his first front-row start of the season alongside Perez, thanks to his own strong performance after the opening set of runs – and hailed the Aston Martin’s balance as “perfect” following the session.

The two-time champion starts ahead of countryman Carlos Sainz on Sunday’s grid, as the Ferrari driver managed to produce a steady lap despite the opening set of runs. Kevin Magnussen joins him on the second row of the grid, the Haas driver nailing his first attempt as the team continued to look impressive throughout qualifying.

Magnussen, however, is under investigation for impeding Lewis Hamilton in Q1, when the Mercedes driver brushed the wall when avoiding the Haas.

Pierre Gasly took fifth ahead of George Russell, who broke through into Q3 by the skin of his teeth, while Leclerc was seventh fastest prior to his crash.

Esteban Ocon ensured two Alpines made the top ten, with Verstappen and Bottas failing to set representative times in the final part of qualifying.

Hamilton was the big-ticket elimination from Q2, only managing to secure P13 in the session as the Mercedes drivers spent most of the second part of qualifying in the drop zone.

Russell managed to progress into the top ten, but Hamilton was unable to extract the same degree of pace from the W14 and missed out on Q3 by two tenths, the seven-time champion feeling that the team went too late in search of progression to the final part of qualifying.

Alex Albon was dumped out of qualifying by Russell, who was just half a tenth ahead once the session came to a close, to deny Williams another shot at a Q3 berth.

Albon starts P11, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who was also unable to progress having sat in the top ten through most of the session. Hamilton starts Sunday’s race ahead of Zhou Guanyu, who could not join Alfa Romeo team-mate Valtteri Bottas in Q3, and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries.

Track conditions in Q1 rapidly improved in the dying stages of the session, creating a mad dash to the finish line as the margins were particularly tight among the midfield runners.

The McLaren and Mercedes duos were mired in the bottom five with a minute and a half to go, with both squads expecting to progress.

Both Mercedes drivers managed to grab competitive laptimes to progress, but Oscar Piastri could not break past the time and stamped his card for an early bath in the session.

Lando Norris meanwhile managed to get into P11, but improvement from the cars around him contrived to push him back down into the drop zone, ensuring he dropped out at the first stage.

Yuki Tsunoda qualified P17, while Lance Stroll also failed to coax his Aston Martin out of the bottom five and collected P18 for Sunday’s race. Piastri and Logan Sargeant completed the final row.

So a mixed up grid for the Miami Grand Prix with the Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc out of position. Overtaking around this track will be tricky but it will be fascinating to see the progress in the race.

Miami Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:26.841
2 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:27.202
3 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:27.349
4 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:27.767
5 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:27.786
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:27.804
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:27.861
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:27.935
9 Max Verstappen Red Bull No time
10 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo No time
11 Alexander Albon Williams 1:27.795
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:27.903
13 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:27.975
14 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:28.091
15 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:28.395
16 Lando Norris McLaren 1:28.394
17 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:28.429
18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:28.476
19 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:28.484
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:28.577

Sergio Perez wins another street race following a strong drive at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, assuming the lead from Formula 1 team-mate Max Verstappen after the safety car pitstops.

The Red Bull driver took advantage of a pitstop under the safety car to emerge in the lead after Verstappen had led the early phases of the race from polesitter Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc led away at the start line from Verstappen and, without DRS being made available in the opening series of laps, was able to hold a scant lead over the two-time champion.

But at the end of the third lap, Verstappen breezed past the Ferrari driver thanks to the great speed advantage of his Red Bull with DRS active, and led into the first corner of the fourth lap.

Leclerc quickly fell out of range and was soon easy pickings for Perez, who then immediately began to chase after Verstappen in his efforts to secure a second career victory at the Baku circuit.

Perez had homed to within DRS range of Verstappen, but the race was interrupted to pause the sprint race winner’s progress when Nyck de Vries crunched his front-left wheel against the inside wall at Turn 6, and stopped on track.

Verstappen pitted in response, but the emergence of a lap 11 safety car as the marshals tried to clear de Vries’ stranded AlphaTauri ensured that his side of the garage had somewhat mistimed the call – the safety car emerging when Verstappen was exiting the pitlane.

This gave Perez and Leclerc the chance to take cheaper pitstops under the safety car, allowing them to emerge from the pitlane in front of Verstappen once they’d collected their fresh hard tyres.

Although Leclerc tried to take a look at Perez on the restart, sticking with the leader, he could not keep Verstappen from blasting past at Turn 3 to assume second place.

But Perez had broken clear of DRS range, crucially ensuring that Verstappen could not employ the powerful rear wing against his own team-mate.

Perez and Verstappen then began to trade blows, and a tug of war over the fastest lap ensued – but the gap began to slowly open in Perez’s favour, particularly when Verstappen started to complain of a lack of balance between his differential and engine braking.

By the end of lap 36, Perez was clocking in with laps in the one minute, 44 seconds, with Verstappen still mired in the one minute, 45 seconds to help the driver’s lead grow to 2.5 seconds – which broke the three-second mark two laps later as Perez continued his impressive pace.

Continuing to set the pace, Perez got the gap up to 3.6 seconds but lost 0.6 seconds to Verstappen in trying to lap the twice-stopped Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, forcing him to bolster his defences in the following lap with another series of quick laps.

The difference between the two was at its zenith at 3.7 seconds, which Perez felt was enough to secure the victory – and began to back off, crossing the line with 2.1 seconds for his second win of 2023.

Verstappen went in search of the fastest lap point, although the reigning champion duly delivered the quickest lap, Fernando Alonso swiped the point away provisionally until Verstappen set a one minute, 44.474 seconds.

But Alonso, undeterred, went two tenths quicker than his fellow two-time champion to add to his points tally while trying to hunt down Leclerc.

Alonso was 0.8 seconds off Leclerc by the end, missing out on a fourth consecutive third place, as the Monegasque managed to shake off the Ferrari’s greater tyre degradation to ensure he could convert pole into a podium.

Alonso had earlier made up ground at the restart with an audacious move down the inside of Carlos Sainz at Turn 4, and Sainz finished 23.4 seconds behind his countryman after multiple discussions over strategy were aired on the television feed.

Lewis Hamilton dispatched Lance Stroll to take sixth, while George Russell – after a good start to the race – fell behind his team-mate and the Aston Martin driver at the restart and struggled to keep tabs with the pair ahead.

The Briton instead elected to call in and bolt on the soft tyres, swiping the fastest lap point away from Alonso.

Lando Norris had spent most of the race sat behind Nico Hulkenberg, who did a long stint on the hard tyre, but eventually broke past the Haas driver to move up into the points – which became ninth when the similarly late-stopping Esteban Ocon called in on the penultimate lap.

This elevated Yuki Tsunoda into the points to ensure AlphaTauri could double his season’s points tally – 2.6 seconds clear of Oscar Piastri.

It wasn’t the most thrilling race at Baku but this was a commanding victory for Sergio Perez. He won the sprint race the previous day and now, Checo is a winner again in the main Grand Prix. Solid result for the driver and Red Bull Racing with this 1-2 finish.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, race results:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:32:42.436
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +2.137s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +21.217
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +22.024s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +45.491s
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +46.145s
7 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +51.617s
8 George Russell Mercedes +74.240s
9 Lando Norris McLaren +80.376s
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +83.862s
11 Oscar Piastri McLaren +86.501s
12 Alex Albon Williams +88.623s
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas +89.729s
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine +91.332s
15 Esteban Ocon Alpine +97.794s
16 Logan Sargeant Williams +100.943s
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
18 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1 lap
Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo DNF
Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri DNF

Sergio Perez overtook Charles Leclerc to take victory in Formula 1’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix sprint race, taking the chequered flag for Red Bull Racing with a 4.4 seconds advantage.

Starting second, Perez slotted in behind Leclerc at the start and stuck with him through the opening lap, before the race was paused for a safety car period produced after Yuki Tsunoda hit the wall at Turn 14 on the opening lap.

The AlphaTauri driver tore the right-rear tyre off the rim, appearing to have had contact with team-mate Nyck de Vries to damage his front wing.

A virtual safety car emerged for the debris, as Tsunoda crawled back to the pitlane. Although AlphaTauri put a new set of tyres on to try and salvage something from the sprint, the car was noticeably crabbing on the straights and the team was investigated for releasing the car in an unsafe condition.

This evolved into a full-blown safety car by the third lap, with proceedings restarting on the sixth lap once the debris was cleared from the track.

Leclerc let fly on the restart to stay ahead of Perez, leading the next two laps with Checo keeping tabs on him.

But once DRS was available, Perez became a greater force in Leclerc’s mirrors and, at the end of lap seven, reeled the Ferrari in on the 2.2-kilometre main straight and swept past to pick up the lead of the 17-lap race.

The Ferrari driver stuck with him and had a brief look down the inside into Turn 3, but ultimately was not presented with an opportunity to return the favour.

With greater straightline speed, Perez could slowly start to edge away from Leclerc and eventually broke free of DRS range as Leclerc was more concerned with trying to manage his tyres to keep ahead of Max Verstappen.

The Ferrari driver briefly closed in once again and got back within DRS range of Perez, but the Red Bull driver turned up the wick and broke free of Leclerc at almost a second a lap’s advantage, growing to 4.4 seconds by the flag.

Leclerc managed to hang on in second from a late Verstappen charge, as the reigning champion was hampered by damage in a first-lap skirmish with George Russell.

The Mercedes driver had a better getaway and was side-by-side with Verstappen through the opening array of corners, eventually breaking past at Turn 3 – with Verstappen complaining that Russell had touched him through the first lap. His Red Bull sustained a small gash in its left sidepod, as he momentarily dropped to fourth.

But after the restart following the safety car, Verstappen caught a tremendous run on Russell and seared past to reclaim third place.

However, Verstappen was unable to make inroads into Leclerc and dropped outside of DRS activation for most of the sprint, only getting to within a second in the final couple of laps.

Russell claimed fourth ahead of Carlos Sainz, who had battled earlier on with Lewis Hamilton, and broke past the Briton after falling behind before the restart.

Fernando Alonso followed through in the same move to get ahead of Hamilton, as Lance Stroll claimed the final point after winning out in a battle with Alex Albon.

Stroll made a move past the Williams at Turn 1 from a long way behind, and held off Albon into Turn 3.

Oscar Piastri completed the top ten after passing team-mate Lando Norris, who struggled for pace and ultimately pitted to turn his race into a glorified test session.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, sprint race:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 33:17.667
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +4.463s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +5.065s
4 George Russell Mercedes +8.532s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +10.388s
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +11.613s
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +16.503s
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +18.417s
9 Alexander Albon Williams +21.757s
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren +22.851s
11 Kevin Magnussen Haas +27.990s
12 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +34.602s
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine +36.918s
14 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +41.626s
15 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +48.587s
16 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +49.917s
17 Lando Norris McLaren +51.104s
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine +60.621s
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri DNF
Logan Sargeant Williams DNF

Charles Leclerc claimed the Formula 1 sprint pole position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, overcoming a late drama with the wall to beat Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

A time of one minute, 41.697 seconds from Leclerc amid the first runs in the eight-minute SQ3 session proved unassailable, and a second set of laps from both Perez and Verstappen could not topple the Ferrari’s driver searing pace around the Baku circuit.

The Red Bull duo was especially keen to be first out in the final part of qualifying, sitting at the pitlane exit for a few minutes between sessions, and immediately began proceedings with the initial headline efforts.

Perez posted a one minute, 41.876 seconds to go top, and Verstappen was unable to beat his team-mate’s effort having complained that he “lost all the rear in the middle sector”.

Leclerc reprised his form from Friday and fired his Ferrari across the line with a one minute, 41.697 seconds to sit on top of the order, once again throwing down the gauntlet to the Red Bull duo.

Although Perez began to hit back, setting the best middle sector time of the session and threatening to usurp Leclerc, he was unable to make the difference in the final sector and crossed the line 0.15 seconds shy of Leclerc’s benchmark.

Attempting to better his own time, Leclerc then gave the Ferrari garage a scare by putting his Ferrari into the barrier at Turn 5, but only damaged his front wing and was able to back it out of the wall – compromising team-mate Carlos Sainz’s lap in the process.

Verstappen improved his time but was unable to claim any ground on Leclerc and Perez, and will thus start the sprint race from third on the grid.

With Sainz unable to make any gains, George Russell moved past the Spanish driver to claim fourth on the grid for the shortened Saturday race. His team-mate Lewis Hamilton starts from sixth, alongside Sainz on the third row.

Having carried his Williams all the way to SQ3, Alex Albon will start the sprint from seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso, who was suffering amid continued DRS issues at Aston Martin. Lance Stroll was ninth quickest, while Lando Norris could not run in SQ3 having no sets of soft tyres left.

The rules dictate that a fresh set of softs must be used, but McLaren decided to sacrifice a potential SQ3 outing on Friday and employed that set during his Q3 lap, giving him seventh on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Oscar Piastri was unable to progress to the final part of qualifying, despite getting into the top 10 late on in SQ2 with a lap 0.03 seconds shy of team-mate Norris.

But Stroll received a tow from Alonso in a showing of great teamwork among the Aston Martins, slingshotting the Canadian into the top ten at Piastri’s expense.

Nico Hulkenberg overcame a near-miss with the wall at Turn 7, where he sustained a lock-up at the front, to shuffle up to P12 as Haas did not have the pace to provide a concerted challenge for SQ3.

Esteban Ocon could only go P13 in a difficult session for the Alpine squad, albeit three tenths clear of Kevin Magnussen.

With 30 seconds left on the clock of SQ1, Logan Sargeant hit the wall at Turn 15 to effectively freeze the order for the opening 12 minutes of running, breaking the right rear corner of his Williams in the process.

Sargeant had been P11, but could take no further part in the session given the extent of the damage – the American citing that the “Ferraris were in the middle of the road” on the exit of the Old City section.

This denied the Alfa Romeos of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas a chance to break out of the bottom five. But the timing of the red flag was more cruel for Yuki Tsunoda, who had qualified in the top ten for Sunday’s Grand Prix, and was on course to better his lap before the session was stopped as he was on the final straight.

Pierre Gasly entered the pits after his initial runs, and thus could do no better than 19th on the grid – and was only spared from the bottom of the pile by Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman endured a troubled run, once more going deep at Turn 3 – but this time, avoided the wall and managed to reverse out.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, sprint qualifying:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:41.697
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:41.844
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:41.987
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:42.252
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:42.287
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:42.502
7 Alex Albon Williams 1:42.846
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:43.010
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:43.064
10 Lando Norris McLaren No time
11 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:43.427
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:43.806
13 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:44.088
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1;44.332
15 Logan Sargeant Williams No time
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:45.177
17 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1;45.352
18 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:45.436
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1;46.951
20 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:48.180

Charles Leclerc earned his third successive Baku pole position by beating Max Verstappen. The Ferrari driver will start in P1 following Friday’s qualifying session based on the new sprint weekend format.

This is the first weekend run to the latest sprint format, with another qualifying session on Saturday for the shorten, racing event.

Leclerc secured his first Formula 1 pole of the season on his final effort of the session, with a time of one minute, 40.203 seconds, having ratcheted up his pace from a strong opening run in the last part of qualifying to prove unassailable for the two Red Bull drivers.

On their first flying runs of Q3, Verstappen and Leclerc set identical times – both crossing the timing line with a one minute, 40.445 seconds apiece, with Perez a tenth behind. Leclerc had the whip hand over Verstappen in the opening sector, but the defending champion had the monopoly over the remaining sectors.

Leclerc was the first of the trio to begin his final hot lap, crucially flipping the Red Bull’s advantage in the second sector to go over two tenths faster than his first run.

Perez went quicker than Leclerc in the first sector but was comparatively slower in the second sector and could only match the Ferrari driver in the final part of the lap.

Verstappen’s final sector was quickest, but the second sector once again proved to be the difference – the reigning champion could not find enough time over the remaining parts of the lap to overturn that disadvantage.

An one minute, 40.391 seconds was enough for Verstappen to beat Perez to the front row, however, and the latter will start Sunday’s race next to Carlos Sainz.

Sainz had been unable to improve on his first lap, one minute 41.016 seconds, but it was enough to keep a second-row slot away from Lewis Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver had improved in Q3 having come perilously close to being knocked out in Q2, with the W14 matching the leaders’ pace in the final sector.

He starts alongside Fernando Alonso on the grid for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Aston Martin driver losing time in the middle sector relative to his former McLaren team-mate.

Lando Norris led the line for McLaren, which had got two cars into the final part of qualifying having been bolstered by new updates, Norris qualifying seventh ahead of an impressive Yuki Tsunoda.

Lance Stroll struggled with an unresponsive DRS and could only manage ninth on the grid, ahead of Oscar Piastri, who completed the top half of the field.

George Russell was the biggest casualty of Q2, having been disposed of through late laps from Piastri and Tsunoda, and the Mercedes driver was not able to improve on his own fastest lap to break back into the top ten.

He crucially remained clear of Esteban Ocon, who reported a brush with the wall in a messy session for the Alpine team, while Alex Albon could not break out of the drop zone despite impressive straightline pace in his Williams. Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant were the other casualties from Q2.

Nyck de Vries buried his AlphaTauri in the Turn 3 exit wall halfway through Q1 to bring out a red flag, without a representative lap on the board. De Vries had to be pushed back into the garage while preparing to get out on track, citing a brake-by-wire issue.

After the session resumed, Pierre Gasly – having barely factored in practice after suffering a hydraulic leak – was next to produce a stoppage hitting the wall at Turn 3, tearing off his right-hand sidepod and part of his rear wing.

Sainz had his own near-miss in the meantime, enduring a slide on the exit of Turn 1 but managed to keep his car out of the wall.

Both Haas cars were from the first part of qualifying, Kevin Magnussen having suffered from an engine issue earlier in the session. Although K-Mag reported that the car felt fine, his team told him not to risk it and pulled him into the garage, leaving him unable to better his time from the opening phase of the session.

Nico Hulkenberg was on the brink of the drop as Alfa Romeo pair Zhou Guanyu and Bottas occupied the elimination zone, and Hulk’s poor first sector effectively ended his chances of evading an early bath.

The Alfa pair initially escaped the bottom five, but Piastri’s final effort was enough to push Zhou back into P16, two hundredths of a second off Ocon.

So congratulations to Charles Leclerc with this pole position. Another qualifying session takes place on Saturday which sets the grid for the sprint race but this result determined the starting order for the main Grand Prix event.

Azerbaijan Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:40.203
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:40.391
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:40.495
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:41.016
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:41.177
6 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:41.253
7 Lando Norris McLaren 1:41.281
8 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:41.581
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:41.611
10 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:41.611
11 George Russell Mercedes 1:41.654
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:41.798
13 Alexander Albon Williams 1:41.818
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:42.259
15 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:42.395
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:42.642
17 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:42.755
18 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:43.417
19 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:44.853
20 Nyck De Vries AlphaTauri 1:55.282

Max Verstappen held off his old championship rival Lewis Hamilton to win Formula 1’s 2023 Australian Grand Prix, which ended in surreal scenes following a late second red flag of three and a chaotic subsequent restart.

Verstappen had dominated most of the proceedings despite losing the initial lead from pole to George Russell and Hamilton, before a first red flag caused by Alex Albon crashing out solo and putting debris and gravel across the road.

At the second standing start Hamilton maintained his lead, but as soon as the DRS overtaking aid was reactivated, Verstappen blasted by into a lead he would ultimately not lose but with plenty of drama and confusing scenes to come.

The first red flag meant none of the leaders completed any in-race pitstops as they were able to change their starting tyres under the stoppage, which was what cemented Russell’s place in the pack from which he charged before his engine expired in flames at the end of the event’s first third.

For most of the race, there was little action at the front as Verstappen dropped Hamilton and worked his way to a ten-second advantage that was only cut when the Red Bull driver briefly ran off the road at the penultimate corner and complaining about front locking.

At this point, Hamilton was holding Fernando Alonso at arm’s length while the teams worked out if their charges could get to the finish without requiring new tyres.

They were upping their pace – exchanging fastest laps with Verstappen ahead – when the concluding farce kicked off, starting with Kevin Magnussen bizarrely running off the track by himself exiting the second corner and striking the nearby wall with his right rear.

This fell off as he headed towards Turn 3 and that, plus Magnussen stopping inside Turn 4, led to the race being stopped again, with a two-lap sprint set to conclude the action.

When this started, Verstappen swept across Hamilton’s bows and covered the inside line to Turn 1, from where Alonso exited ahead of Carlos Sainz and was then tagged by the Ferrari and spun towards the wall Magnussen had tagged.

Behind, chaos reigned as Pierre Gasly locked hard behind Sainz and went off at Turn 2 along with several other cars and as Gasly rejoined he swung right and took out team-mate Esteban Ocon, ruining what had looked to be a very strong result for Alpine and Pierre in particular as he had been fighting Sainz for most of the race.

Before the red flags came out for a third time, Lance Stroll slid into the gravel at Turn 3 while fighting Sainz, appearing to also destroy Aston Martin’s previously excellent positions.

But after the race was suspended, crucially before Verstappen had passed the first sector timing line, a 30-minute delay followed with one lap remaining from the 58 total as the FIA worked out how the event would conclude.

It eventually decided, much like at Silverstone in 2022, that the previous grid restart order would be used minus the cars that could not take a fourth and final restart.

This was a safety car rolling start that meant no overtaking and so Verstappen blasted to the win under no threat from Hamilton and the restored Alonso fourth.

They were followed home by Sainz but he had already been handed a five-second time addition penalty for hitting Alonso at the third standing restart – this event matching Mugello 2020 and Jeddah 2021 for such scenes.

Sainz, who raged about not being able to explain his case to the stewards, therefore fell to P12 in the results, making it a point-less weekend down under for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc had retired in the Turn 3 gravel way back on the first lap after turning in and finding Lance Stroll on his inside and getting turned around in what was swiftly declared a racing incident.

Sergio Perez’s charge from a pitlane start had provided most of the action during the main part of the race, as he put in pass after pass on slower rivals into the fast Turn 9/10 left-right swoops.

He had reached seventh by the second red flag but was very lucky to end up fifth as he had been attacking Gasly in the third restart chaos and went deep into the gravel and fell to the rear of the pack before being boosted back up by the FIA’s ruling.

Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg put in a thrilling battle during the pre-Magnussen red flag events and they ended up sixth and seventh ahead of home hero Oscar Piastri.

Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda completed the top ten ahead of Valtteri Bottas and the penalised Sainz.

So an entertaining and chaotic race in Albert Park. So much action, overtaking and restarts. Plus a surreal ending with a parade to the flag. Congratulations to Max Verstappen in winning the Australian Grand Prix and great to have Lewis Hamilton scoring a podium for Mercedes while Fernando Alonso continues to score a top three result for Aston Martin.

Australian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 2:32:38.371
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.179
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +0.769
4 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +3.082
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull +3.320
6 Lando Norris McLaren +3.701
7 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +4.939
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren +5.382
9 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +5.713
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +6.052
11 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +6.513
12 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +6.594*
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine +2 laps
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine +2 laps
15 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +2 laps
16 Logan Sargeant Williams +2 laps
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas +6 laps
– George Russell Mercedes DNF
– Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Charles Leclerc Ferrari DNF
*Five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Fernando Alonso

Max Verstappen achieves his first Australian Grand Prix pole position in Albert Park while the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will line up second and third on the grid.

After a light rain shower had hit the Melbourne circuit just ahead of the one-hour session getting underway and with the C4 Pirelli softs holding on for multiple laps but requiring multiple warm-ups to be at their best, the Australian crowd was treated to an action-packed qualifying.

After being fuelled to run for huge chunks of laps at a time in Q1 and Q3, most of the Q3 runners opted for two new tyre runs of five laps, with two fliers.

Verstappen had led the way throughout but was reporting possible issues with his RB19’s battery and transmission when he blasted in a one minute, 16.732 seconds to secure pole with a few seconds left on the clock.

That knocked back Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who was shuffled back to fourth position by the last-gasp efforts of Russell and Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver slotted in with one minute, 17.968 seconds as the only other driver to join Verstappen under the one minute, 17 seconds bracket, with his teammate slightly adrift having had to jockey for position with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg through the final corners on their last warm-up tours.

Behind Alonso came his Spanish compatriot Carlos Sainz for Ferrari, with Lance Stroll sixth for Aston Martin and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari next up.

Leclerc put in his best time well ahead of the chequered flag and with enough time to complete a final run in Q3 and although he set a personal best one minute, 17.369 seconds he could not climb further ahead.

Alex Albon gave Williams its best qualifying of 2023 so far in eighth position – pitting ahead of his Q3 rivals completing the last laps in the final minutes – with Pierre Gasly and Hulkenberg completing the top ten.

Esteban Ocon missed a personal best on his final Q2 flier after encountering traffic late on in the final sector and was knocked out behind Albon by just 0.007 seconds, the Williams driver abandoning his final lap in the middle segment after clipping the Turn 11 apex kerb and nearly losing the rear of his car.

Also knocked out in Q2 were Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris and Kevin Magnussen, who all set their best laps at the end.

Nyck de Vries did not do likewise as he was eliminated in P15 for AlphaTauri, after he had escaped Q1 for the first time in his debut season with the Red Bull sister squad.

In Q1, Sergio Perez locked up heading into the tight, Turn 3 right-hander on his first flying lap and slid straight off the road and into the gravel trap he had also visited in FP1 and FP3.

The Jeddah Grand Prix winner skated across the gravel but as he turned right and tried to manoeuvre his way out he became stuck at the edge next to a muddy access road close to the barrier, where Checo fumed he had suffered the “same issue” as earlier in the weekend.

This is possibly referring to the braking problem Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said both of his charges were grappling with earlier in the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

After an eight-minute delay, the opening segment resumed, with the pack fuelled to run throughout.

Eliminated alongside Perez were home hero Oscar Piastri, who set a personal best on his final flier but it was not good enough to dislodge Tsunoda ahead, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant and Valtteri Bottas.

Sargeant had a spin at the start of Q1 when he put his right-side wheels on the still slippery exiting the final corner and he pirouetted around diving back into the pits.

So an exciting race in Albert Park in store with the four champions in the first two rows on the grid. Bring on the race!

Australian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:16.732
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.968
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:17.104
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:17.139
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:17.270
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:17.308
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.369
8 Alex Albon Williams 1:17.609
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:17.675
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:17.735
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:17.768
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:18.099
13 Lando Norris McLaren 1:18.119
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:18.129
15 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:18.335
16 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:18.517
17 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:18.540
18 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:18.557
19 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:18.714
20 Sergio Perez Red Bull No time

Sergio Perez is a street circuit master thanks to victory at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah.

Perez crossed the line 5.3 seconds clear of Verstappen, who spent the final laps charging his battery for a final-tour tilt at the fastest lap which was ultimately successful as he crossed the line with a one minute, 31.906 seconds lap.

Perez had to overcome a setback at the start, in which Fernando Alonso trickled through into the first corner to take the lead and settled into first place.

But immediately, Alonso was pinged for starting from the incorrect grid location, and a swift investigation resulted in the Aston Martin driver taking a five-second penalty for having been too far to the left in his starting box.

Despite his lead over Perez briefly getting over a second, Alonso was chased down by Perez at the end of the third lap and, with DRS, Checo was able to pull to the inside and make a move to regain the lead at the start of lap four.

Alonso stuck with him in DRS range and, although he never made a charge to reclaim the lead, he was able to sit in Perez’s slipstream for a few laps until he was simply unable to keep within a second of the Red Bull.

From there, the Aston Martin driver tailed off and quickly dropped to 1.6 seconds off Checo by the 11th lap, a deficit that doubled two laps later.

But the race was paused on lap 17, as Lance Stroll – who had earlier put a sensational overtake on Carlos Sainz on the opening lap at Turn 13 – crawled to a halt and parked up at Turn 8. This ultimately brought out a safety car, prompting a flurry of pitstops among the front runners as they traded their medium tyres for the hardest compound.

Verstappen was brought on level terms after the safety car restart, having pitted along with the early leading pack, and was initially told to prioritise managing his tyres until DRS was activated on lap 23.

This gave him the tools to dispose of George Russell with DRS into Turn 27, and the defending champion was subsequently able to catch Alonso in a bid to break into the top two.

Next on Verstappen’s agenda was closing down the 5.4 seconds gap to Perez, and was able to chip about a tenth out per lap, getting it to five seconds by lap 30 of the circuit as Perez tried to reduce the damage.

The polesitter managed to restore his buffer to about 5.2 seconds on the following lap, as he and Verstappen continued to battle for fastest laps. Although largely matching each other for time, Verstappen was able to continually chip away at Perez’s lead.

As the gap fell below 4.5 seconds, Verstappen began to get worried as he started to feel the driveshaft making strange noises at high speed, which restored Perez’s gap to 5.2 seconds as Red Bull investigated his complaints.

But sufficiently happy, Red Bull told Verstappen to press on – and in the meantime, Perez reported a long brake pedal as the team tried to close out the race. Once the two were reassured over their issues, Verstappen closed the gap back up to 4.3 seconds as the radio chattered between the Red Bull drivers and engineers began.

Perez attempted to lobby his team into slowing things down as Verstappen continued to push but, once told it was open season, Perez opened the taps and began to flex an advantage over his team-mate having been able to hang in the low one minute, 32 seconds.

With three laps remaining, Perez’s lead grew to six seconds as Verstappen was instead concerned more about the fastest lap, and the lead grew in Perez’s favour to 7.1 seconds ahead of the final lap.

Verstappen then set his one minute, 31.906 seconds to snatch the fastest-lap point from his team-mate, cutting the gap to just over five seconds to ultimately follow his team-mate home as Perez chalked up a first win since Singapore last season.

Alonso completed the top three, having served his five-second penalty during the safety car period ahead of his pitstop to remain ahead of the chasing Mercedes and Ferrari cars.

Russell was told on the radio to keep Alonso within five seconds, just to cover off the threat of any further penalties, but a mighty last lap from the 2005 and 2006 world champion left the Mercedes driver outside of that margin, and the FIA immediately placed him under investigation for serving the penalty incorrectly.

Alonso had initially completed the top three, having served his five-second penalty during the safety car period ahead of his pitstop to remain ahead of the chasing Mercedes and Ferrari cars.

With that, Alonso was hit with a 10-second penalty, moving him down to fourth and promoting Russell into third position.

Lewis Hamilton ensured both Mercedes made the top five, having opted for a contra-strategy in which he started on hards and completed a 32-lap stint on the medium compound.

This ensured he was able to finish ahead of Carlos Sainz, who had earlier used his pitstop to overcut Stroll, having been the object of his sumptuous pass around the outside at Turn 13.

Sainz stayed ahead of Charles Leclerc, who battled through the order after a 10-place penalty left him starting P12, and the Ferrari driver was able to make it up to seventh position.

Esteban Ocon won the battle of the Alpines to finish eighth, with Pierre Gasly finishing ninth to repeat his Bahrain result.

Haas got off the mark for the season as Kevin Magnussen completed the top ten, having battled throughout the second half of the race with Yuki Tsunoda over the final point.

K-Mag put a move on the AlphaTauri driver at the start of lap 46, denying the Italian team the chance to score its first point of 2023.

So a Red Bull 1-2 with Sergio Perez scoring a victory after a super drive and yet Max Verstappen was the most impressive following a driveshaft failure in qualifying. The double champion charged through the field thanks to the amazing race pace in the RB19 and to get the fastest lap and P2 is important for the championship.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, race results:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:21:14.894
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull +5.355s
3 George Russell Mercedes +25.866s
4 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +30.728s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +31.065s
6 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +35.876s
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +43.162s
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine +52.832s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +54.747s
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas +64.826s
11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +67.494
12 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +70.588s
13 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +76.060s
14 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +77.478s
15 Oscar Piastri McLaren +85.021s
16 Logan Sargeant Williams +86.293s
17 Lando Norris McLaren +86.445s
18 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +1 lap
– Alex Albon Williams DNF
– Lance Stroll Aston Martin DNF

Sergio Perez claimed his second Formula 1 pole position at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as early favourite and Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q2 with a driveshaft failure.

The double champion had reeled off the fastest lap times in all three practice sessions, and had headed Q1 by half a second over teammate Perez as the result of qualifying appeared to be a foregone conclusion.

Verstappen suffered a slide on his first bid to set a competitive lap in Q2 and backed out of it to prepare for another effort but, lost drive during the middle sector and reported that he could no longer accelerate.

He limped back to the garage, but it became clear that Max would not be able to continue with the session. The team later reported that a mechanical failure of his driveshaft was the culprit.

Given his terrifying advantage, Verstappen’s shocking exit ensured that the battle for pole would largely be open season – although Perez had the upper hand thanks to Red Bull’s overall pace.

It proved to be thus in the opening runs, and Perez setting a one minute, 28.265 seconds to go nearly half a second faster than Charles Leclerc’s best effort as the Ferrari driver had moved to the top after his first run.

This laid down the gauntlet for the other drivers to pick up, and Alonso was first to challenge but lost around three tenths in the final sector to slot in behind Perez in the order.

Lance Stroll then set the best first sector of anyone, keeping tabs on Perez through the next part of the circuit, but shed half a second in the final part of the lap to throw away any chances of claiming a surprise pole.

Leclerc was the last serious contender to try and overhaul the Mexican, but was just 0.155 seconds shy by the close of the lap – but it proved to be enough for the Ferrari driver to claim second over Alonso on the timesheets.

However, Leclerc will stare down the barrel of a ten place grid penalty for the Grand Prix, having taken new control electronics for the second race of the season outside of his permissible allowance.

Perez’s effort amid the opening runs of the session proved to be more than ample to earn his second-ever pole position in Formula 1, his first having come at last year’s race in Jeddah.

Alonso’s best time was 0.465 seconds shy of Perez and the Spaniard was thus third fastest, ahead of George Russell as the Mercedes driver was able to coax a competitive first-sector time out of his car.

Carlos Sainz overcame a Q2 scare, in which he had to try another lap to break into the top ten, to claim the fifth fastest time. He starts alongside Russell on the second row owing to Leclerc’s penalty, with Stroll fifth on Sunday’s grid.

Ocon was seventh fastest from Hamilton, while Oscar Piastri made his first Q3 appearance in Formula 1 and was ninth in the order, beating Pierre Gasly to a place on the fourth row of the grid once penalties have been applied.

Aside from Verstappen’s issue in Q2, Gasly made a late escape from the drop zone having been pushed into the bottom five by Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.

The Hulk was in P14 after the first set of runs, but sprung into the top ten to leave Gasly on the brink of needing to take an early exit.

By just 0.04 seconds, Gasly pipped Hulkenberg to a place in Q3 in a closely fought session in which the top 14 were covered by just 1.033 seconds.

Piastri dumped Yuki Tsunoda out of qualifying at the flag during Q1, moments after the AlphaTauri driver had managed to push Alex Albon into the drop zone amid a late flurry of laps.

Conversely, Lando Norris was unable to progress having tapped the inside wall at Turn 27, immediately breaking his front-left suspension to force him into a quick retreat to the pitlane. Norris could not return to the circuit, ensuring he was P19 in the session.

He was surrounded on the timing boards by Nyck de Vries, who spun on his first timed lap at the opening corner and later confessed to messing up the final corner on his last-gasp effort to try and break out of the bottom five.

Logan Sargeant propped up the order after losing his best laptime to track limits. Coming out of the final corner, the Williams driver crossed the line at the kink along the start-finish straight, costing him his one minute, 29.721 seconds lap – which would have been good enough to get him into Q2.

Sargeant later spun on his next effort later on in the session, and then scuffed his final lap and reported an unspecified breakage – coming to rest at Turn 10 after pulling over.

So a mixed up grid for the main race following the shocking exit for the defending world champion. The front row looks exciting with Perez alongside Alonso. It’s going to be fascinating to see Verstappen fighting through the field as the Red Bull RB19 has super race pace.

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Qualifying positions:
1 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:28.265
2 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:28.730
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:28.857
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:28.931
5 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:28.945
6 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:29.078
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:29.223
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1’29.243
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:29.357
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:29.451
11 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:29.461
12 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:28.420*
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:29.517
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:29.668
15 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:49.953
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:29.939
17 Alex Albon Williams 1:29.994
18 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri 1:30.244
19 Lando Norris McLaren 1:30.447
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 2:08.510
*Ten place grid penalty for changing an electric control unit

World champion Max Verstappen dominated Formula 1’s 2023 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix to win ahead of Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso, while Charles Leclerc lost a podium to an engine issue.

Verstappen led easily away from pole position, while his Red Bull teammate Perez lost second to Leclerc after he made a slow getaway and fell behind the Ferrari driver.

Any hope of a battle for the lead was quickly extinguished when Verstappen romped clear of Leclerc by over half-a-second a lap, with Perez tracking Leclerc across the first stint before they made their first of two pitstops.

Leclerc was the first of the leaders to stop to switch from softs to hards on lap 13 of 57, with Verstappen coming in from nearly ten seconds clear to take a second set of softs after both Red Bull cars had come into the race with just one set of the white-walled rubber available.

Perez ran a few laps longer before he stopped to take more softs too, which he then used to close in on Leclerc and took second with a DRS-assisted blast to the inside of Turn 1 on lap 26.

From there, Verstappen was only bothered by a minor downshift issue causing occasional rear-locking and ran clear of Perez to win by 11.9 seconds after they had both completed one more pitstop to finally take the hards in what was a crushing performance from Red Bull.

That was made even better when Leclerc, who had dropped to nearly ten seconds behind Perez before making a second stop for fresh hards on lap 33, retired from the race after suddenly losing drive on lap 40, with Ferrari later saying it had “lost the engine” on his SF-23.

That triggered a brief virtual safety car as the Ferrari was recovered, after which Alonso charged after and passed compatriot Carlos Sainz to score a podium on his first appearance for Aston Martin.

He had earlier lost a place to Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes on the first lap, then lost another to George Russell when Lance Stroll tagged his new Aston team-mate outbraking himself while battling Russell into Turn 4 on the opening tour.

Alonso followed Hamilton through the race’s early tyre management phases and two stops for both Astons and Mercedes cars, the Spaniard running long before making his second stop after Mercedes had pitted Hamilton early for a second time to ward off an undercut threat from his former McLaren team-mate.

The two world champions engaged in a thrilling fight over what was then fifth place, with Alonso needing two attempts to clear Hamilton after his first pass at Turn 4 went wrong before he put in a brilliant Turns 9/10 dive to clear the Mercedes.

Post virtual safety car, Alonso quickly caught Sainz, who had been running a long way adrift of Leclerc and concerned about his second set of hards making the finish, and also had a close call with the Ferrari when he tried to pass for the first time at Turn 4 on lap 45, lightly tagging the Ferrari’s right-rear with his left-front.

But a few moments later, Alonso’s superior pace meant he benefitted from DRS down the back straight and he blasted by to take a third place he would not lose.

Hamilton shadowed Sainz to the finish in fourth and fifth, with Stroll beating Russell to sixth after Aston pulled off the undercut at his second stop.

In other incidents of note, Pierre Gasly rose from last to finish ninth, with Alex Albon tenth for Williams.

Lando Norris stopped five times due to a pneumatic pressure problem on his McLaren before he retired late on, as was Esteban Ocon after he picked up three penalties – for being out of position in his grid box, Alpine working on his car before he finished serving his five-second penalty at his first stop and the speeding in the pitlane.

So congratulations to Max Verstappen by kicking off the new season with victory. This is the perfect start for Red Bull Racing with a 1-2 finish with Sergio Perez taking second position. As for Fernando Alonso, what a drive in the Aston Martin. Points finish for the double champion in his first race in British Racing Green. Well done Fernando!

Bahrain Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:33:56.736
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull +11.987s
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +38.637s
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +48.052s
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +50.977s
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +54.502s
7 George Russell Mercedes +55.873s
8 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +72.647s
9 Pierre Gasly Alpine +73.753s
10 Alex Albon Williams +89.774s
11 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +90.870s
12 Logan Sargeant Williams +1 lap
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas +1 lap
14 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri +1 lap
15 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1 lap
16 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo +1 lap
17 Lando Norris McLaren +2 laps
– Esteban Ocon Alpine DNF
– Charles Leclerc Ferrari DNF
– Oscar Piastri McLaren DNF