Verstappen: Stewards created the problems themselves

Verstappen won his second race of the season at Albert Park, ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso third, following a series of incidents that led to only 12 cars finishing.

Red Bull's Verstappen told reporters the decision to restart the race from the grid a second time, for what should have been a two-lap sprint to the finish, led to multiple collisions that took four cars out of the race.

"I think if we would have had a safety car and then just have a normal rolling start, we wouldn't have had all these shunts, and then you have a normal finish," he said.

"They (race officials) created the problems themselves at the end of the day," the double F1 Champion insisted.

Verstappen, reflected on his race in Red Bull's race brief; he said: "My start today wasn't amazing and then on lap 1 I was very careful as there was a lot on the line, I had a lot to lose and a lot to win.

"But after that restart, we had good pace and a decent gap for the majority of the race. Perhaps we didn't need all of those red flags today, it was frustrating, but everyone was safe and we won which is the most important thing.

"It's my first win in Australia which feels really good, it's also been a while for the Team so it means a lot to us all, especially as Checo also had a good recovery drive today. It's been a chaotic day but it's great to see that the fans had a great time despite the long wait!," he concluded.

Teammate Perez, who battled from last on the start line to finish seventh, said restarting the race from the grid rather than under a Safety Car was incentive for drivers lower down the field to gamble in the opening corners, putting other drivers in jeopardy.

"It's people taking massive risk and it was quite difficult for me," he said, and later in his team's press release added: "Generally, it was a good result today.

"Yesterday, I obviously lost a bit of confidence with the car, but we made a lot of changes overnight so that helped heading into the race. I had a really good restart the first time, I jumped 3 or 4 places but then it was a bit of a mess with the DRS train.

"I was frustrated later in the race because I couldn't advance any further, but it was so difficult to get through the field with tyre deg low and everyone going on to the hard tyres quickly. Maybe if I'd been a bit more aggressive earlier on, I could've finished higher, but I'm happy we finished P5 and even managed to secure the fastest lap.

"Overall, this race gives us confidence heading to Baku in a few weeks and we look forward to the challenge that it brings," the Mexican concluded.

F1 has boomed in popularity after a thrilling 2021 season was decided by a controversial officiating decision on the final lap of the last race.

But the increased interest from casual fans - lured in part by Netflix documentary "Drive to Survive" - has led critics to argue authorities are seeking to manufacture drama in the closing stages of races.

"The whole point of red flagging, it feels like it was just to put on a show," McLaren's Lando Norris, who finished sixth, told reporters.

"So we've gone all the way to Australia, put in so much hard work, drive 56 laps perfectly. And because they try and put on a show, (you can) just get unlucky and everything can get taken away from you all of a sudden.

"I just think it needs a small rethink." (

Reporting by Alasdair Pal, Additional reporting by GrandPrix247

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