It will take a while for the dust to settle on this one. Sainz, apoplectic, described the penalty as “the biggest disgrace I've seen in the sport for many years” and marched off to see the stewards who were unmoved. But only after he had handed Sainz a five-second penalty for causing the collision with Alonso, which had the effect of dropping the Spaniard from fourth to 12th at the finish. The debris from all those incidents brought out one last red flag, with race director Steve Neilsen deciding it would be prudent this time to finish behind a safety car. Four cars crashed out, including both the Alpines – Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon crashing into each other – while there were numerous other collisions, one involving Alonso and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. The ensuing grid start, on lap 56 of 58, resulted in utter pandemonium as the field set off on a two-lap sprint for the finish.
To everyone’s surprise – Hamilton’s included – the 38-year-old managed to keep the gap steady until Kevin Magnussen’s crash four laps from the finish brought out a second red flag. And he continued to look the part after a safety car was brought out to clear up an opening lap shunt involving Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, getting away well again at the rolling restart. The youngster had a dream start from second on the grid, blasting past pole-sitter Verstappen into Turn 1 (a move that threw the Dutchman off his stride to such a degree that Hamilton was also able to get a run on him into Turn 3). Hamilton’s teammate George Russell would almost certainly have finished on the podium, too, but for some rotten luck amid all the chaos. But Hamilton did manage to keep Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso behind him for the entire race, an achievement which did not seem feasible in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago. That the double world champion was still within sight of Hamilton at the finish line was, admittedly, only because the race finished behind a safety car. But this was a significant improvement on their season so far.Īn extraordinarily chaotic race – which lasted well over two and a half hours and involved three red flags, three safety cars, and four starts or restarts – eventually finished with Lewis Hamilton in second place behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Perhaps Mercedes will now campaign the sport’s former race director to return full time because his presence – Masi was here working for Australian supercars – also had the effect of restoring the Brackley team’s pace.
It turns out all Formula One needed to get back to 2021 levels of chaos and drama was Michael Masi back in the paddock. By Tom Cary, Senior Sports Correspondent, in Melbourne
0 kommentar(er)
