Oscar Piastri scores first Formula 1 points as Australian rookie finishing eighth in Melbourne

Oscar Piastri clinched his first points in Formula One at the end of a chaotic Australian Grand Prix on Sunday when just 11 cars finished the race.

The 21-year-old was eighth as Max Verstappen crossed the checkered flag behind the safety car after the race was abandoned for the third time following a bad first corner crash with two laps to go.

Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz collided with the former dropping to 11th place while the two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly eliminated each other and Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant also fell.

However, as the lap had not passed the first sector, the FIA ​​decided to restart the race with the order from before that third start, meaning Verstappen finished first while Lewis Hamilton and Alonso were on the podium.

“I’m definitely looking forward to getting my first points on the board, especially here at home,” said Piastri.

Oscar Piastri scored his first points in Formula 1 when he finished eighth in Melbourne

The young Australian started 16th on the grid but survived a chaotic race to earn his first F1 points after a difficult start to the season

“It was a crazy race, it’s the first race where I’ve had three red flags and I think it’s probably most people’s first race like this.

“We stayed out of trouble and ended up in the points.”

With his first F1 points at his home Grand Prix, Piastri emulated his manager Mark Webber, who finished fifth on his debut in 2002 in a similarly incident-prone race at Albert Park with Minardi.

Piastri, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren after working as a reserve driver for Alpine last season, arrived at Albert Park with little hope of securing the first points of his career in a struggling car.

The 21-year-old showed promise in practice, finishing 12th on Friday and setting the 14th fastest time in the third session on Saturday morning, but was eliminated in Q1.

But in a race marred by crashes, fires and stoppages, Piastri survived the carnage and scored the first points of his career.

The Melbourne native was 11th when the GP was restarted with two laps remaining after a red flag was called out by Haas after an incident involving Kevin Magnussen.

But he was promoted into the top-10 after the restart led to more chaos in the field when a red flag was called for the third time in the 58-lap race.

The race was halted again, with a pause of around 30 minutes, before resuming under a safety car as defending champion Verstappen clinched his first Australian GP win in truly bizarre circumstances.

After retiring in the season opener in Bahrain due to electrical problems, Piastri finished 15th in Saudi Arabia as McLaren struggled to put a competitive car on the market.

Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix in a dramatic race at Melbourne’s Albert Park

The race ended under a safety car with Hamilton finishing second and Alonso on the podium

The British manufacturer fared much better in Melbourne as Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris crossed the line in sixth.

“It wasn’t a great first two races for the whole team as things are mostly out of our control,” said Piastri.

“The first two races really couldn’t have gone much worse for the team.

“Obviously we both had our issues in Bahrain and Saudi as the contact wiped us both out so it was nice to be on the good end when other things were going wrong for other people.”