RETURN TO OZ

PICTURES

FORMULA 1 RETURNED TO AUSTRALIA WITH a weekend festival of sport which, in a world laid low by war and pandemic, was good for the soul. It was three years since Hamilton, Verstappen et al raced around the city’s Albert Park, two years since that ill-fated Friday 13th in 2020 when F1, the FIA and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation cancelled that year’s event to the disbelief of spectators queuing at the gates.

“I was there and couldn’t believe it,” said Craig, a diehard F1 fan who told me of his annual pilgrimage from Queensland’s Gold Coast. “I won’t even tell you what it cost me and I ended up spending the weekend with some disappointed fans drinking our sorrows away.”

But he had come back, and the disappointment of 2020 was being washed away in a blaze of Melbourne sunshine, packed grandstands, rumbling V8 Supercars and excited stall-holders selling merchandise by the