The world champion dismissed it as a mess and accused the FIA, the governing body, of being responsible. Verstappen won in Melbourne with a dominant display but only after three red-flag stoppages, confusion and the race ultimately finishing behind the safety car. “I am very happy to have won, but the race towards the end was a bit of a mess,” he said. “I just didn’t understand why we needed a red flag. “We’ll talk about it, I think it left a lot of drivers confused about why we needed a red flag. The Mercedes driver George Russell, who took the lead from Verstappen off the start but was then put at a disadvantage after the first red flag, was also critical of the FIA. “I thought the red flag was totally unnecessary,” he said.

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