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Another clumsy end to a GP but F1 gets away with it

What a load of nonsense. Restarting a grand prix when the cars have completed 56 of the scheduled 58 laps was ridiculous, although – as our debate on page 13 shows – not everyone shares that view.

At least we ended up with the correct result, apart from the incredibly unfortunate Alpine squad, which deserved rather better from the weekend than two extensive car rebuilds. Of course, as we explain on p4, it took several hours to untangle the mess last Sunday.

On track, the prowess of Red Bull’s RB19 was once again on display. Mercedes was stronger than expected, Ferrari weaker, but either way Max Verstappen could afford to have one of his less stellar weekends and still come away as an easy winner. It was nice to see him and Lewis Hamilton traverse a corner side by side without crashing (notwithstanding Verstappen’s daft and misguided comments about it), but otherwise the Australian Grand Prix underlined how much work the rest have to do to catch Red Bull. Next week, we delve deeper into the RB19 to try to explain what makes it so good.

Closer was the Texas duel between Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward. David Malsher-Lopez was there to see Penske beat McLaren (p32).

The UK racing season is gathering momentum. As well as our reports from last weekend’s action (p62), Stefan Mackley looks ahead to what could be the best British GT season ever in his preview (p48) and we hear from some of the potential GB3 frontrunners (p52).

Kevin Turner Chief Editor kevin.turner@autosport.com

NEXT WEEK

13 APRIL Secrets of Red Bull success We take a look at Formula 1’s benchmark team and start our Le Mans 100

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Cover images Glenn Dunbar/Simon Galloway/ Motorsport Images

PIT & PADDOCK 4 Controversy over Australian GP restart 6 More Formula 1 rule tweaks 8 IndyCar oval aero set-up proves a hit 10 Tandy in third Porsche 963 for Le Mans 13 Debate: should Oz GP have restarted? 14 Opinion: Tom Howard 15 Opinion: Marcus Simmons

RACE CENTRE 16 Australian GP report and analysis 32 Newgarden pips O’Ward in Texas 36 World of Sport: Formula 2; Formula 3; Australian Supercars; NASCAR; MotoGP

CLUB AUTOSPORT 48 British GT season preview 52 The key players in GB3 for 2023 55 Champ Smiley gets new Civic for TCR UK 56 Keen to deputise for Gounon in Brit GT 58 Aussie Hyper Racer to debut in Mono 61 Opinion: Stephen Lickorish 62 National reports: Donington Park; Brands Hatch; Oulton Park

FINISHING STRAIGHT 68 What’s on this week 71 Top five: Le Mans one-off winners 72 From the archive: 1954 Belgian GP 74 My favourite team-mate: Yannick Dalmas

SUBSCRIPTION OFFER 54 Special deals for Autosport

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