First points For Nico Hulkenberg! Australian grand prix: Race results

The 2023 Australian Formula One Grand Prix was a thrilling race that saw Max Verstappen take his first victory at the Albert Park circuit. The race was not without its controversies, with a late red flag caused by Kevin Magnussen led to a standing restart that saw several drivers crash out, including Alpines Fernando Alonso who drove all race on P3 and both the Alpines.

Afterwards several drivers questioned the red flags given by race control as they felt a normal safety car would have been sufficient.

The other Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg had a solid race, even for several rounds heavily defending his point scoring position against the much quicker red bull of Sergio Perez. He ended the race in P7 scoring his first points for the Haas team.

American driver Logan sergeant also crashed at the late restart as with cold tires he missed his breaking point and crashing into the Alpha Tauri of Nick the Vries ending both their race.

Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen had an unfortunate race ending the race with a crash causing a red flag. As he took a sharp turn at Turn 2, he brushed the wall, causing the rim to break and the tire to come off. Despite not feeling any major impact, the damage was enough to end his race prematurely, Although disappointed, he realized he was in P12 at the time and unlikely to score any points. Though it wasn’t his day, Keving remained optimistic about the pace of his car and vowed to push harder next time.

Nico Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg had a great race ending in P7 and scoring his first points for the Haas team “It was wild and a bit messy at times. We’ll have to look through everything that happened as there were a lot of things happening.”

He felt he had a super start at the last restart of the race as he came through on P4, (which could have been a podium due to Sainz his 5 second penalty). so it’s a shame there were a few incidents and then the race was red flagged.

He felt there are a lot of positive learnings again and also that a lot of good things happening. All in all he stated he is in a very positive mindset and really enjoy working with the team and experimenting with the car: “We have very good momentum and that’s what we want to take into the next races.”

Protest

Haas protested the provisional results of the Australian Grand Prix. The reason the Haas team filed a protest over the result of Sunday’s race was because they felt the grid order was not according to Article 57.3 of the Sporting Regulations, which states that in the event of a red flag, “the order will be taken at the last point at which it was possible to determine the position of all cars”

Race Control determined that the last point at which it was possible to the determine the position of all cars was when the last grid was formed while the Haas team felt that the relative positions of the cars could be established as at the Safety Car line instead. This would result in Hulkenberg gaining another place in the result,

Unfortunately however the stewards rejected the protest, Nevertheless a 7th place is a great result for the Haas team.

Formula One Australian Grand Prix 2023 – race results

The full race results can be found here.

Current championship standings for the drivers here, and for the teams here.

With the first 3 races of the season finished, the teams now have a couple of weeks break as they move to Azerbaijan on April 28th for the 4th round of the season.