Max Verstappen's bid to win a record-equalling 10 consecutive races went up in smoke as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz returned from surgery just 16 days ago to win in Australia.
Verstappen suffered a brake failure after just four laps of Sunday’s 58-lap race at Melbourne’s sun-cooked Albert Park to end his winning streak which stretched back to September’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Sainz took advantage of Verstappen’s first retirement in 43 races to claim just the third win of his career a fortnight after he was ruled out of the previous round in Saudi Arabia with appendicitis.
Charles Leclerc finished second to complete a Ferrari one-two with Lando Norris next up as the British driver landed his first podium of the year.
Lewis Hamilton’s miserable start to his final season with Mercedes continued after he retired on lap 17 with an engine failure.
Hamilton, who is leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari at the end of the season, has taken just eight points from the opening three rounds – the worst start of his 18-season career.
Both Mercedes cars failed to make it to the end in Melbourne after George Russell crashed out on the penultimate lap. Russell’s Mercedes ended up on his side but the Englishman was able to walk away from the accident.
More than 132,000 spectators were crammed into Albert Park anticipating another Verstappen victory after the Dutch driver took pole position here on Saturday.
And when the 26-year-old held off Sainz at the start, and ended the opening lap one second clear of the Spaniard, Verstappen looked on course to take his third victory from the opening three rounds.
But to the amazement of the record crowd in Australia, Sainz sailed past Verstappen on lap two before smoke began pouring out the back of his Red Bull machine.
"I have smoke," he said over the radio "Fire, fire, brake, my brake."
Verstappen was falling back through the pack and the crowd cheered his demise. He managed to get his wounded machine back to the pits before his right-rear brake temporarily caught fire.
Verstappen remonstrated with performance director, Tom Hart at the back of the garage – appearing to say "that is f***** stupid" – before heading to his changing room and putting on his Red Bull civvies and taking the long walk through the paddock to the media pen.
"The brake stuck on from when the lights went off," said Verstappen. "The temperatures kept on increasing until the point where it caught on fire.
"Having one brake caliper on was like driving with the handbrake on. I didn’t know at the time but I could feel the balance in the car was off."
Asked about his exchange with Hart, he replied: "That was related to us doing a pit stop while the car was on fire!"
It was a bad day for the winners of the past seven world championships after Hamilton’s miserable weekend here ended with him stopping on track as his engine expired.
Hamilton started 11th and was running in ninth before his Mercedes gave up the ghost.
Hamilton’s previous worst start to a season had been back in 2009 when he was disqualified at the first round before finishing sixth and seventh. Before today’s retirement, Hamilton had started the season with a seventh and ninth in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
But for Sainz, the man making way for Hamilton at Ferrari next year, he had an afternoon to remember by leading home a Ferrari one-two from Charles Leclerc with Lando Norris completing the podium.
Sainz took his win under the virtual safety car after Russell’s Mercedes dramatically ended up 90 degrees to the floor after he thudded into the wall in his pursuit of Fernando Alonso.
Russell reported over the radio that he was "OK" and was able to walk away from the crash. Oscar Piastri took fourth for McLaren ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull with Alonso sixth.
After the race, Alonso was handed a 20-second time penalty for his driving before Russell's dramatic 150mph crash.
Alonso was found to have breached Article 33.4 of the sport’s regulations – effectively finding him guilty or driving erratically and in manner that could be deemed as dangerous.
The stewards said Alonso, 42, had "lifted slightly more earlier than he ever had", and "also braked very slightly a point that he did not usually brake".
They also added that there was insufficient information "to determine whether Alonso’s manoeuvre was intended to cause Russell problems".
Following the crash, Russell, unharmed in the accident, said Alonso, who dropped from sixth to eighth in the official classification following his penalty, "slammed on his brakes" in front of him as they duelled for position. Alonso was also hit with three points on his licence.
A statement from the FIA read: "The stewards have extensively reviewed the situation that occurred prior to the crash. 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.
"The stewards considered that they do not have sufficient information to determine whether Alonso’s manoeuvre was intended to cause Russell problems, or whether as he stated to the stewards that he simply was trying to get a better exit.
"This season, the FIA Formula One penalty guidelines, including for this breach have been reset and increased to a baseline of a 10-second penalty. In addition, when there is some aggravating circumstance, we consider a drive-through penalty.
"In this case we consider that Alonso affirmatively choosing to perform an unusual manoeuvre at this point to be an aggravating circumstance, as opposed to a simple mistake."
Speaking before the verdict was handed out at 7:52pm local time – more than three hours after the chequered flag fell in Melbourne – Russell said: "I was half a second behind, and the next thing, he slammed on the brakes, accelerated again, slammed on the brakes again.
"The FIA will have all the data and it is interesting that they have called us to the stewards for it.
"I am not going to point fingers or accuse anyone or anything. I was the one who lost the car, but I was just really surprised."
The crash left Russell, 26, precariously positioned in the middle of the street circuit.
The virtual safety car was deployed, slowing down the oncoming traffic, but Russell added: "It was not a pleasant place to be, in the middle of a high-speed corner, on the racing line.
"The VSC took 10 or 15 seconds to come out. It doesn’t sound like a lot but you can have three cars come round the corner in that time, and when you are doing 250kph (155mph), and there is a car in the middle of the road, I was really quite worried."
