The sun was shining in Melbourne, much the same as the rainy Qualifying session. It was looking punchy at the sharp end of the grid with a lot of drivers with a lot to prove on lap 1. Russell made an excellent start and took Verstappen immediately and Hamilton wasn't far behind. He felt that Hamilton pushed him wide but ultimately, he was being very cautious, preserving his championship hopes over taking unnecessary first lap risks. The Ferraris initially made a good start, punishing Alonso but Stroll was too close to LeClerc and, with nowhere to do, the Prancing Horse was into the gravel trap bringing out the Safety Car. The first casualty. A few drivers pitted with the aim of finishing the race on these new tires (if only they knew).
Having initially pulled away nearly a second from his team mate, Hamilton then caught Russell up quickly, as did Verstappen behind him. Russell was told to manage his pace but then panicked as Hamilton was looking to attack. Just as this three way battle was climaxing, Albon spins out of nowhere and into the tire barrier. A heart-breaking shame but the Safety Car was out, lap 7 and the race was neutralised. Russell and Sainz pitted for new tires, which Hamilton felt was a disadvantage to his strategy. However, in F1, things can change in a moment. The Red Flag was shown as there was too much debris and the tire wall needed repairing and the cars retired to the pits, meaning Russell was now 7th for quite a while.
As it was a Red Flag and the race stopped, the Safety Car took the cars round to the start line for a standing start, effectively another race start. On the way, some drivers got very confused trying to stay behind each other and came to a bizarre stand still but this did seem to be investigated or commented on for the rest of the race. Hamilton got away well, with Verstappen at bay and Alonso in third. De Vries flew over the top of Ocon but kept the car on the track. Russell in seventh had places to make up and he scythed through the pack and was in 4th a couple of laps later. Perez however, who had started in his Red Bull garage, seemed to be struggling to cut through the back of the pack. Unlike his team mate, who was soon past Hamilton.
Just as things were going so right for Russell, his car was on fire. He better watch out or he'll one of those drivers like Webber, who just never have the luck. Retiring it at the end of the pit lane, a Virtual Safety Car was deployed, which gave everyone some cooling off time.
Nothing dramatic happened for a while and teams debated what each other were doing with their tire strategy. Gasly made his way towards the front and Perez got up to 9th. Just when it seemed plain sailing to the chequered flag, Verstappen makes a large lock-up goes off the track and over the fields. This must have given great hope to Hamilton and Alonso behind him.
Then the drama started again, with Magnussen losing a tire and damaging his suspension with 5 laps to go. There was some confusion as to whether a Safety Car would be required but the marshals needed to pick up a tire from the track. It looked like the race would finish under the Safety Car but the Race Directors wanted more drama than that and Red Flagged the race so that there would be a third start to the race.
This time it was a classic Australian GP race start, with absolute carnage. Alonso was the first to fall, tagged by Sainz, but managed to keep going. His team mate Stroll seemed to just take himself out of the race but also kept going at the back. Having had an amazing race, Gasly and Ocon took each other out, which is the Gallic coming to that everyone has been braced for since the partnership was announced. Sargeant was also out in the Williams. Verstappen held the lead as he had pointed right across the straight to block off Hamilton. The whole thing was Red Flagged again. For the second time the stewards were investigating "the restart procedure". It was a difficult decision to figure out how to fairly draw the race to a close. The cars would restart in the same order that they started because they did not cross a sector line. However, the Alpines could not start as the cars were not capable so they were taken out of the running order. During the stoppage, Sainz was awarded, and told he was given, a 5 second penalty for his part in the ordeal. He pleaded the case vociferously over the radio. After the race he was so angry he couldn't give a coherent press briefing.
As the drivers had shown they cannot start a race in Melbourne safely, it was going to be a rolling start, with the drivers immediately finishing the race as they cross the line. Only 12 cars finished, obviously with no Williams amongst them. Points for both McLarens, ending a very grim era for them and an unexpectedy points-scoring result for the home hero. Even after the chequered flag there were incidents with Hulkenberg stopping on track but claiming 7th.
Verstappen was happy to have avoided all the drama (as he said: "We survived everything.") and come home first and Hamilton was over the moon with second. I think everyone would have liked to see Alonso on the top step but it was third for him. David Coulthard didn't really know what to say on the podium interviews other than "that was crazy!". Somehow Perez was voted Driver of the Day, maybe the time of the race is convenient in Mexico? My vote went to Bert Mylander, the Safety Car driver, who did many more laps than some drivers.
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