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VERSTAPPEN WINS IN MELBOURNE

We had three red flags, numerous incidents involving cars flying out, crashes, debris, and numerous glances to the rule book to decide things.

But, at least, we've had a worthy winner in the form of VERSTAPPEN who led for most of the race.

And HAMILTON is ecstatic with his P2 as Mercedes look to have some of their groove back - though the retirement of RUSSELL will be disappointing.

And ALONSO's great season continues with another podium, though perhaps in fortunate circumstances.

LAP 58/58

The cars are out, and going around, but when they cross the line VERSTAPPEN is confirmed as winner of the Australian Grand Prix, and deservedly so, but effectively by default.

HAMILTON is second, and ALONSO in third place.

RED FLAG

The FIA confirm that we'll have a rolling restart of the race but there will in effect be no racing, and from there we'll have the final classification.

But as a sporting spectacle this has been totally shambolic - the fans in attendance are still there but they will have very little idea what is going on, and this has been decided on technicalities rather than racing, and that's never, ever a good thing.

RED FLAG

SAINZ is raging and BEGGING with his Ferrari team over radio that he should get to speak to the FIA after the race, and calls the incident UNACCEPTABLE.

It's been another disaster for Ferrari this weekend with LECLERC exiting on lap 1 of the race.

RED FLAG

It's been confirmed that SAINZ has been given a five-second penalty for clipping ALONSO on the restart.

BUT given all the cars will be finishing in procession formation, that five seconds could mean A LOT of positions on the grid and he could effectively be dropping from P4 until out of the points altogether.

Oh, Ferrari...

LAP 58/58 🚩 RED FLAG 🚩

Restart order - 1, 44, 14, 55, 18, 11, 4, 27, 81, 24, 22, 77#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/E70RZhzcEh

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 2, 2023

RED FLAG

There's confusion and a lack of clarity as the teams are trying to process where they stand after the mess of that restart; some are pretty happy, such as Aston Martin and ALONSO and STROLL, while it's been a really unfortunate end for Alpine.

Anyway, we're done racing today, even if the cars will come back out for a fourth and final time in 10 minutes for a procession lap.

What a chaotic race.

RED FLAG

The cars WILL go back out on the track but it will be simply a formation lap through the chequered flag. The cars didn't make it through the first sector and so the FIA has to reset to the last position in which they can establish the order of the grid.

Except the cars that didn't finish - which impacts mainly the Alpine duo of OCON and GASLY - are removed from the grid. So ALONSO is BACK, but the Alpines are NOT.

Clear? Thought not. But we'll get a full, final grid order shortly.

What is clear is the podium positions:

1. VERSTAPPEN 2. HAMILTON 3. ALONSO

RED FLAG

As it stands it's been a fantastic race for TSUNODA, who finds himself in P5!

And McLaren, after two torrid races so far, will have both cars in the points, as will Alfa Romeo.

But there's still much debating as to what, how, and when this race will officially be finished. It's all rather messy and it seems unnecessary to send them back on the track for what will effectively be a formation lap to the chequered flag.

The FIA STILL haven't made a decision, and we're ALL waiting for a resolution.

RED FLAG

We're just seeing footage of DE VRIES and SARGEANT, who also ended up on the gravel after that restart.

We're effectively just deciding how the race classification will be determined here, as there will definitely be no more racing here. But there's options in terms of the order in which people will finish.

It could either be the order it was on the grid, or the order it is now, after the restart.

RED FLAG

ALONSO is fuming on team radio and is praying we're going to have another restart here but we're still not clear as to what happens next.

The rule book is being sifted through and the race start is under investigation. We'll know soon enough.

RED FLAG

We're now on our THIRD red flag of this race after that restart.

Picking through the mess, it appears that SAINZ just clipped ALONSO coming out of turn 1 and spun him around, while OCON and GASLY ran into one another in such an unfortunate incident.

But we remain very unclear as to what happens next - do we restart the race AGAIN, or is the race effectively over and the race is settled based on current positions?

We're waiting to find out more.

LAP 57/58

We're BACK underway and in the third standing start of this race, it's CHAOS in behind and we've got ANOTHER red flag. Absolutely astonishing.

OCON and GASLY took each other out on the restart, while SAINZ made contact with ALONSO and spun him OUT of the race.

And at the front it was VERSTAPPEN who got away quickest and he stayed ahead of HAMILTON.

Carnage!

RED FLAG

The cars are about to come back out for the formation lap. We're set for a bombastic two laps of pure racing here. Let's see what happens!

RED FLAG

VERSTAPPEN looks a little tense in the pit lane and rightly so - he thought he was cruising to the most straightforward of victories but now his win is back at the behest of his speed off the line.

Anything could happen here, stay tuned!

RED FLAG

We're going to be back underway in 10 minutes and the anticipation is palpable.

VERSTAPPEN has been slow off the line in the previous two starts, and if he has a similarly slow start, it could open the door for HAMILTON or even ALONSO.

And there will be NO DRS, as there's only two laps remaining. We can't wait!

RED FLAG

VERSTAPPEN seems bemused as to why the race has been red flagged, but the loss of MAGNUSSEN's tyre, when it collided with the wall, has led to debris all over the track.

ALONSO lets out a 'What?' when hearing of the red flag, while HAMILTON asks if they will restart the race - we can confirm that they will.

There are three laps remaining - one of which will be the grid lap, then two laps of racing.

RED FLAG

After MAGNUSSEN's incident we have the second RED FLAG of the race!

There's so much debris on the track that the cars have been called in and that means we'll likely get two full laps of racing. Wow!

LAP 54/58

MAGNUSSEN has lost his back right tyre on turn 2 and he's able to ditch his car in a safe position, but his tyre is still out lying on the track.

We've got a SAFETY CAR with four full laps remaining. No-one seems likely to pit, and we could have a shoot-out in the closing stages.

LAP 52/58

NORRIS duly gets through into P8 with a great move on HULKENBERG.

Into the closing stages now and we haven't had the HAMILTON-ALONSO battle we wanted, mainly because the distance between them has barely moved - they are both lapping at real pace and Alonso just can't get close enough.

LAP 51/58

HAMILTON is lapping quicker than ALONSO at the moment and has been able to build up a slightly bigger advantage, to 1.6 seconds. SAINZ isn't going to catch Alonso here - he's nearly 4 seconds down now.

Further back, HULKENBERG and NORRIS are enjoying a ding-dong battle for P8.

LAP 48

PEREZ sets the fastest lap of the race and he's now in P7 and is 3 seconds down on STROLL.

Meanwhile VERSTAPPEN makes an error and takes his Red Bull onto the grass verge, losing himself a few seconds in the process, but his lead is such that it shouldn't make all that much of a difference.

LAP 46

ALONSO and HAMILTON increase their speeds slightly as the state of their tyres is such that they should be able to go until the end without pitting again.

Alonso is 1.2 seconds down on Hamilton, and he's opened up a close to 3 second back to SAINZ when turning on the style.

LAP 44

PEREZ finally gets past NORRIS on turn 8 and yes indeed, the DRS move did the job for the Red Bull, which once again showcases it straight-line speed. He'll be hoping that he can be looking at, potentially, P5 from here.

It's as you were out in front - we're hoping this is the calm before the storm as ALONSO and HAMILTON do battle for P2.

LAP 42

PEREZ is struggling to get past NORRIS from P9 to P8, and it's limiting his ability to score decent points this weekend and maintain a small points gap to VERSTAPPEN.

NORRIS is low key driving well and PEREZ might need to use DRS when possible in order to get past.