Review: Action Packed Thursday at Albert Park

The opening day of the FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 saw plenty of action, but perhaps not in the way that some of the teams and drivers would have wanted.

While the Formula 1® drivers completed their final preparations before taking to the track on Friday, and in front of more than 60,000 fans the Support program got off to a troubled start, with defending Supercars Champion Shane van Gisbergen and Tim Slade sidelined in two separate accidents on Thursday morning, which prompted officials to red-flag the opening Practice session.

The second Practice session was much more straightforward, before Ford driver Anton De Pasquale (Shell V-Power Ford Mustang) and van Gisbergen (Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet Camaro) split the two pole positions in the two separate Qualifying sessions.

In Thursday afternoon’s opening Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint race van Gisbergen followed De Pasquale early before seizing the lead under brakes. The New Zealander made his mandatory pitstop with a single lap remaining in the 19-lap journey, to take a narrow 0.4sec win. Second was Brodie Kostecki, who just held off his Coca Cola Erebus Motorsport teammate for position, while SVG’s teammate Broc Feeney made it a Chevrolet 1-2-3-4.

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In the opening Paynter Dixon Porsche Carrera Cup race, polesitter Max Vidau was beaten away by Jackson Walls and Callum Hedge, before separate crashes further back in the field involving Indiran Padayachee and Danny Stutterd, and one that sidelined Chris Pither, prompted a red flag. While officials attended to the damaged carts, time ticked away and the race was not restarted, and as a result no results were issued.