Amid chaos and confusion, the local boy drives and survives

However far Oscar Piastri goes in Formula 1 and whatever he achieves, it is safe to say he will never experience anything like his first home grand prix.

After the most chaotic race run at the Albert Park circuit, Piastri emerged with the first championship points of his F1 career in circumstances that echoed one of the celebrated feats of his career mentor, Mark Webber, more than 20 years ago.

Oscar Piastri on the track on Sunday.Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

“It was a crazy race,” Piastri said. “I think it’s the first race I’ve had three red flags. I think it’s probably most people’s first race like that.”

The red flags – each thrown up to allow overworked race marshalls to clean the track of bits of car, dislodged tyres and other debris after a series of pile-ups and mishaps – meant that on three separate occasions, the drivers still in the race needed to gun their engines from the starting grid.

This meant a 58-lap race came down to a frenetic, two-lap sprint to victory. As it turned out, they only got as far as the first few corners before the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz sent Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin spinning out onto the grass and one Alpine ran up the back of the other, again forcing the race to a halt.

In the confusing scenes that followed, officials dug into their rule books to figure out the finishing order while team principals and the world’s best drivers furiously debated the intricacies of motorsport bylaws.

That debate will continue long after the F1 caravan moves to its next stop.

Alonso, a 41-year-old past world champion who has driven more Formula 1 races than anyone in the history of the sport, spoke for more than 130,000 people trackside when he said simply: “It is difficult to understand what is going on.”

For Piastri, a driver not yet born when Alonso made his F1 debut, all that mattered was that, when the finishing order was finally settled, he found himself in eighth position – good enough to earn four points for his struggling McLaren team.

The only thing that went to script in this race was that Max Verstappen – chasing his third consecutive drivers’ championship in a Red Bull rocket that leaves the other cars for dead in straight-line speed – finished atop the podium for the first time in Melbourne.

Piastri scored his first points in Formula 1, finishing eighth.Credit: Joe Armao

For the dominant Dutchman, it was a case of ticking off some unfinished business from a diminishing list. For the other two former champions in the field – Alonso and Lewis Hamilton – the day ended with an unexpected return visit to the podium to help Verstappen celebrate.

“I was happy to win the race, but I think the race itself, towards the end, was a bit of a mess,” Verstappen said.

Piastri, who this week celebrates his 22nd birthday, grew up a short drive along the bay from Albert Park. Before this weekend, he had never raced professionally in Australia. His first outing here brought back memories of the day in 2002 when Webber, driving a clunker of a Minardi, steered his way clear of a first-corner pile-up that took out eight cars and ended up scraping into the points.

Webber now helps Piastri to manage his contractual affairs and Paul Stoddart, the Minardi team boss who gave Webber his first drive in F1, cut a familiar figure behind the McLaren garage before Sunday’s race as he dragged on a cigarette and recalled the events of that day.

Piastri greets fans on Saturday. Credit: Quinn Rooney

“It was a special day,” he said. “Michael Schumacher tells the best story. He says, ‘When I went forward to spray the champagne there were a few hundred people down there. I looked left down to you guys and there are 10,000 people hanging off the walls’.”

When asked what Piastri could achieve in his McLaren this weekend, Stoddart said winning a point would be like winning the race.

There was no wild jubilation outside the McLaren garage, where chief executive Zak Brown is soberly going about the business of returning the team to F1 competitiveness. Although both Piastri and his teammate Lando Norris finished in the points here, a long, difficult season still beckons.

For the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, a good day for Piastri capped off a stunning weekend, when a record 444,631 people filed through the turnstiles over the four days of the event.

This was the last race for corporation chief Andrew Westacott, who during his 12 years at the organisation endured two events lost to the pandemic but who also inked a fresh contract that has secured the race until 2037. If Westacott and other good judges are right about Piastri, we’ll be seeing a lot of the local boy before that contract runs out.

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