Formula One Melbourne 2021: Australian Grand Prix cancelled amid COVID-19 quarantine fight

7NEWS understands the 2021 Australian Grand Prix will be cancelled.

The Formula One race was scheduled to be held in Melbourne in November after being postponed earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It comes after long negotiations over a quarantine hub for drivers broke down, with the official announcement expected on Tuesday afternoon.

The Australian Grand Prix was cancelled last year just days before its scheduled start in March 2020 when the pandemic first hit Australia.

Race officials reportedly put a proposal to the Victorian Government asking racing teams to fly in and out of a strict bubble because a two-week hotel quarantine wasn’t feasible as it meant drivers would miss other races overseas.

The annual race in Melbourne sees hundreds of F1 crew members fly in from overseas, a move which would have proved unpopular with the public this year as Australia struggles to contain the Delta strain of coronavirus.

Australian Open tennis players and crews were only allowed to leave their hotels in January to train ahead of the Melbourne grand slam in a move that was criticised.

The famous Bells Beach leg of the World Surf League was moved to NSW in April, while the AFL grand final was played outside Melbourne for the first time in history last year as Brisbane hosted the decider.

Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen has claimed a hat-trick of wins with victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver’s fifth win of the season extended his lead over title rival - seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton - to 32 points after nine races.

Hamilton dropped from second to fourth late in the race after going too wide on turn 10 at Spielberg’s Red Bull Ring circuit and rolling over a kerb, damaging one of his tyres.

His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas finished second ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who clinched the fourth podium of his career on the same track where he secured his first last year.

Max Verstappen has extended his Formula One championship lead after his Austrian Grand Prix win. Credit: AP

The ultra-consistent Norris is the only driver to have scored points in every race this season.

Norris’ teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished seventh.

Hamilton has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix two months ago, a dismal streak of five races for the defending champion.

All of those victories have gone to Red Bull, with Sergio Perez taking the other.

But it was another crushing success for Verstappen at the Red Bull Ring - his team’s home track - with an army of his orange-shirted fans cheering on his 15th career win in the 60-000-strong crowd.

He also won here last weekend at the Styrian GP.

“It is incredible for everyone to have delivered this,” said Verstappen.

“Today has been amazing. It was insane to see all the fans and so much orange. It is great motivation for me, too.”

Verstappen clinched his third straight pole on Saturday and got away cleanly again for another lights-to-flag win, the way Hamilton has so often done.

Hamilton’s wait for a 99th F1 win continues and he will hope for a change of fortune at the British GP in Silverstone in two weeks’ time.

Perez finished fifth on Sunday ahead of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.

But Perez was hit with two five-second penalties for forcing Charles Leclerc off the track twice and was demoted to sixth, promoting Sainz one spot.

Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. Credit: EPA

Norris also copped a five second penalty after Perez came off on turn four on lap three and ran through gravel, dropping from third to 10th following his ambitious move on the McLaren driver.

“It was a lot of fun, a good race, but I am disappointed because we should have been second,” Norris said.

“I thought it (Perez incident) was just racing. He tried to go round the outside which was stupid.

“He ran off the track himself and I did not push him. I am frustrated but happy with third.

“It is the first race I have been able to race a Mercedes and hopefully we can keep it up.”