Albert Park always makes for interesting and chaotic events, with today’s Australian GP being a perfect example of the instance as Carlos Sainz broke yet another lengthy streak of Max Verstappen wins on his return from appendix surgery.
However, it is also a track where crashes can be extremely dangerous.
On the last lap of the 58, George Russell, who had been trying to reach Fernando Alonso for P6 for most of the race, spun out off track as a consequence of the Aston Martin driver slightly slowing down in front of him, hit the wall and bounced back on circuit.
Luckily the British driver was OK after the huge blow, but he dangerous incident called for the race to end behind the virtual safety car.
The dynamics of the almost collision were investigated after the end of the race, with Alonso and Russell summoned by the stewards for almost an hour. Ultimately, the Spanish driver was found at fault in the matter, and thus penalised with a post-race drive through penalty.
The racing penalty was then converted after the end of the race into a 20 seconds time penalty, which demoted Alonso from P6 to P8. The new results now feature Perez in P5, Stroll in P6 and Tsunoda in P7.
The reasoning behind the punishment was the “potentially dangerous driving” and the difference in the telemetry between the final lap and the manner Alonso had previously driven through the same turn on the previous one and throughout the Grand Prix, as stated on the official FIA document:
“Car 63 (George Russell) was following Car 14 (Fernando Alonso) approximately 0.5 seconds behind as the cars approached turn 6. Alonso explained to the stewards that he intended to approach turn 6 differently, lifting earlier, and with less speed into the corner, to get a better exit.”
“Russell explained to the stewards that from his perspective, Alonso’s manoeuvre was erratic, took him by surprise and caused him to close distance unusually fast, and with the resulting lower downforce at the apex of the corner, he lost control and crashed at the exit of the corner.
“There was no contact between the cars. Telemetry shows that Alonso lifted slightly more than 100m earlier than he ever had going into that corner during the race. He also braked very slightly at a point that he did not usually brake (although the amount of brake was so slight that it was not the main reason for his car slowing) and he downshifted at a point he never usually downshifted.”
“He then upshifted again, and accelerated to the corner before lifting again to make the corner. Alonso explained that while his plan was to slow earlier, he got it slightly wrong and had to take extra steps to get back up to speed. Nonetheless, this manoeuvre created a considerable and unusual closing speed between the cars.”
