Lewis Hamilton in disbelief after fans climb fence and enter track at Australian GP

The organisers of the Australian Grand Prix are under scrutiny after a series of safety issues in Melbourne

Lewis Hamilton was in a state of disbelief after a group of fans climbed the perimeter fence and forged a way onto the circuit before the end of Sunday’s chaotic Australian Grand Prix.

A hectic and entertaining race, won by Max Verstappen, saw an F1 record of three red flags thrown and carnage ensue at the end of the race, with fans climbing the perimeter fencing and a group making their way inside the fence too as fast-moving cars sped past them on the circuit.

Hamilton, who finished second, made the point to his race engineer Peter Bonnington: “There’s people on the track, man, some fans have got on.”

Some of the 131,000 supporters at the Albert Park Circuit even reached Nico Hulkenberg’s abandoned Haas at the exit to turn two, after the German had a failure after the chequered flag.

The FIA, F1’s governing body, said that “security measures and the protocols which were expected to be in place for the event were not enforced resulting in an unsafe environment for the spectators, drivers and race officials”.

The body has demanded a “formal remediation plan”.

Andrew Westacott, chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, said that footage would be reviewed to determine how security breaches occurred.

“There’s a controlled allowance of people to come on to the track after the race has concluded and after the safety car passes,” he told ABC.

“Spectators had broken one of the lines, we don’t know how that’s occurred just yet. We’ve got a lot of CCTV and we’ve got a huge amount of footage we’re going to have to pour through over the next couple of weeks.

“Motorsport is dangerous - it could have been horrific.

“Nobody does anything malicious at motorsport, it’s an unbelievably well-behaved crowd but they, I think, had a degree of confusion. We don’t know how they got into the area without the right level of authority.”

Organisers have been further criticised after a spectator was hit by flying debris during the race.

The spectator, Will Sweet, told Australian radio station 3AW that his forearm had been cut by a piece of Kevin Magnussen’s car after the Haas driver collided with the barriers late in the race.

“It slapped me in the arm and I was just standing there bleeding,” he said.

“My arm was covering where my neck would’ve been, but if that had hit my fiancee, it would’ve got her right in the head.

“I realised how big it was and how heavy it was. Part of it was shredded and really sharp. If it hit me in a different angle, it could’ve been horrendous.”