Huge crash causes major delay at Australian Grand Prix

Scenery ahead of Australian GP — Photo: © IMAGO

Australian Grand Prix

Huge crash causes major delay at Australian Grand Prix

The schedule got impacted...but not as hard as the barrier

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 7 March 2026 10:55

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F1 practice was delayed on Saturday in Melbourne, after a dramatic crash in the earlier Formula 3 sprint race.

That sprint race was red flagged at less than half distance after the crash, where both drivers involved walked away from unharmed, but that still didn't give race officials enough time to get the barriers back in shape before FP3.

An initial delay of 15 minutes was announced for the start of the final practice session, extended to 20 in order to fully repair the barriers.

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As for the crash itself, it involved two team-mates coming together at high speed at Turn 6, having already nearly come together just moments before.

Team-mates fume after F3 crash

Australian James Wharton and New Zealand's Louis Sharp, both racing for Prema, had bumped into each other through Turn 5 – with Sharp being forced off the track as Wharton's back end stepped out – before meeting in much more spectacular fashion into Turn 6.

Sharp's views on the incident were pretty clear, calling his team-mate and fellow antipodean a 'f*****g idiot' on the radio.

The Melbourne barriers took another battering just an hour or so later when Kimi Antonelli lost control of his (significantly larger) car in Turn 2 at the end of the delayed FP3 session.

The young Italian driver lost it on the kerb at the Albert Park circuit and hit the wall hard, damaging all four corners of his car and leaving his mechanics a huge job to make repairs before the afternoon's qualifying session.

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F1 Australian Grand Prix Formula 3