Chapter 1429 - 537: End of Chaos (Part 2)
While chaos reigned up ahead, these two at least were a pretty striking sight out on track.
With its rear wheels launched into the air, De Vries’ car naturally lost all tire grip in an instant. Under inertia, the car shot toward the runoff area while starting to spin, then slid sideways and skated off into the asphalt runoff beyond the track.
And the instigator of this whole incident, Russell, also went off the track due to his wheels locking up, and plowed into the gravel trap.
Russell’s idea actually wasn’t bad—he was thinking that once he entered the gravel trap, he could rely on the car’s momentum and his steering input to drag the car back out of the runoff.
But his speed was just way too low, and even if he tried to accelerate, the rear wheels simply couldn’t give him enough drive.
In the end, Russell was also stuck in the gravel.
One start and four drivers were straight-up taken out of the race, and with the ones who had already retired before that...
There were now 7 drivers out of the Australian Grand Prix so far.
And this was also the first time in F1 history that a single race had three red flags.
The key thing was, the gap between two of those red flags was only one lap.
On his way back, Qin Miao had originally been looking forward to the restart later, but after hearing what Frankie said, his heart instantly sank to rock bottom.
"Qin Miao, we’re estimating the race will end under the Safety Car. We might lose the last chance to attack Verstappen."
Qin Miao: ...
"Fo why?"
To be fair, the moment he asked that, Qin Miao felt like his Sunday was getting a little too cursed.
Qin Miao had every reason to suspect that the guy who jinxed him was Leclerc—it had to be that slap he gave Qin on the shoulder after Saturday’s race!
Otherwise how come everything was fine on Saturday, and then the Sunday race was just overflowing with problems and incidents?
Sitting in the car on the way round to the grid, Qin Miao was already subconsciously searching for reasons to explain away this defeat.
Of course, whether it was "reasons" or just the plain truth, nobody could really say.
But whoever it was, once they saw how Qin Miao had driven today, they wouldn’t think he wasn’t up to par.
If he really missed out on the win at this round, it would be a classic case of "force majeure," not his own fault.
Back in the pit lane, Qin Miao had barely been back in the car for ten minutes before he was climbing out again and getting Frankie’s confirmation: "The final order for today’s race is basically set like this."
"Isn’t there still one lap?" Qin Miao tried to fight for it.
"Race control won’t restart with a standing start procedure. Because five meters after the start, Verstappen had already crossed the finish line..."
"Rolling start?"
Frankie nodded. "Exactly. But you know, with a rolling start, you basically can’t overtake."
Hearing that, Qin Miao clicked his tongue. Frankie also gave him enough time to digest the news, and finally Qin could only let out a helpless sigh.
This kind of emotional rollercoaster really doesn’t feel good, especially when Qin rode it twice in one day.
Up ahead of Qin’s car, Verstappen—who’d been cursing away on Red Bull’s team radio just a moment ago—was now done swearing, looking at his race engineer with an expression full of expectation.
Once it was confirmed, Pan’s face finally broke into a grin.
Secure!
The first race win of ’23 was finally in his pocket!
Aside from these two title contenders, the other drivers all had different expressions on their faces at that moment.
And with that, the race was more or less effectively over already; the drivers’ positions weren’t going to change anymore.
But there was a little twist in the process.
Alonso, who had dropped out of the points, went to Aston Martin and had Martin lodge an appeal with race control.
Based on the precedent from the 2022 British Silverstone Grand Prix, if a red flag comes out after the start but before the leader reaches the first timing sector, the drivers will return to their original positions and restart.
Because of that, Alonso, who had messed up at the start, and Perez and others could go back to their original grid positions and start again.
Even if the FIA didn’t like it, with the British Grand Prix case sitting right there, they had no grounds to throw it out.
So in the end, the FIA agreed to Alonso’s request.
And the way this race finished was exactly as Frankie had told Qin Miao: the drivers completed the final lap behind the Safety Car.
The Safety Car pulled off the track in the third sector.
Verstappen knew that as long as he didn’t accelerate before the finish line, Qin Miao behind him wasn’t allowed to overtake.
So he just cruised slowly down to the line.
Never in his life had Qin Miao hated the FIA’s rule about not being allowed to have your front wing ahead of the car in front’s rear wheels during the start phase more than he did right now.
In the end, the 2023 Australian Grand Prix drew to a close amid Alpine’s budget going up in flames and their team principal and mechanics’ blood pressure skyrocketing.
The FIA doesn’t like races ending under Safety Car, but the way today’s race finished was basically no different from a Safety Car finish.
Three red flags in one race, seven drivers out, and the most ridiculous part was that the gap between two of those red flags was just a single lap.
That’s another little bit of F1 history right there.
The drivers’ final positions and points were as follows:
P1: Verstappen +25
P2: Qin Miao +18
P3: Hamilton +15
P4: Alonso +12
P5: Stroll +10
P6: Perez +9 (fastest lap)
P7: Norris +6
P8: Hockenheim +4
P9: Piastri +2
P10: Zhou Guanyu +1
Alonso wasn’t the only one who cashed in at the end. Perez also benefitted from that ruling—the restart meant his whole race of clawing back from the rear wasn’t wasted, and he managed to hang on to P6.
At the same time, because Perez had been chasing slower cars the whole way, once the fuel burned off, he could sit in their slipstream and use their DRS. So setting the fastest lap while hunting them down wasn’t exactly hard to understand.
What’s that? You’re asking about Sainz?
Didn’t we already say it? Sainz straight-up punted Alonso off the track. Even though Alonso got his P4 back after the restart, the fact that Sainz hit him off is set in stone and can’t be undone.
So race control slapped Sainz with a ten‑second penalty.
Even though Sainz sat in the car on team radio pleading helplessly, saying "please" several times in a row...
It still couldn’t shake the FIA’s resolve to give him those ten seconds.
As a result, the Ferrari that crossed the line in fifth wound up classified only thirteenth.
That actually worked out nicely for Zhou Guanyu. He’d already resigned himself to gatekeeping P11, but ended up picking up a point.
Obviously, the happiest guy today was still Verstappen.
Emotionally, Qin Miao and Verstappen were on opposite ends of the spectrum today; both of them went through wild swings in this race.
But Qin Miao’s story was "up, down, down, down," while Verstappen’s was the exact opposite.
Put simply, compared to Verstappen, Qin Miao was just a bit unlucky today.
After crossing the line, Qin Miao and Frankie didn’t really talk much over team radio.
Losing a race like this, it really did feel suffocating; Qin was hurting, and Frankie was frustrated too.
Qin just silently drove his car back to parc fermé.
Pan, as the race‑winner today, was of course treated a bit differently after the finish.
Verstappen’s Red Bull was parked in a room reserved especially for the grand prix winner.
Meanwhile, the two Mercedes of Qin Miao and Hamilton were parked at his door, like a pair of doormen guarding Verstappen’s entrance.
After getting out, Qin Miao and Hamilton shared a hug.
As for the Old Man’s defending against him on track today, Qin didn’t say anything.
Because whether Hamilton had blocked him or not wouldn’t have changed the fact that those two red flags came out later.
Either way, he’d still have run into the red flag just as he went after Verstappen.
The Old Man didn’t say much either, just reached out and patted Qin Miao on the back.
After that brief exchange, the two of them went off for the usual weigh‑in.