Max Verstappen held off seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to score his first Australian Grand Prix victory and second win of the season. The defending champion tightens his grip on the Drivers’ Championship title early on. He started from the pole position and was passed by the two W14s of George Russell and Hamilton at the start. But, the 25-year-old remained composed to win a race that saw three red flags across 58 laps of racing.

It was a relatively trouble-free race for the leader, but the rest of the grid experienced chaos with multiple crashes to document. Hamilton followed Verstappen in P2, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso bags his third podium finish of the season.

With another action-packed race in the Land Down Under wrapped up, let’s go over the top 2023 Australian Grand Prix storylines below.

Key Takeaways from the 2023 Australian Grand Prix

444,631 fans drinking it all in across the weekend

Love you Australia ❤️#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/bFfvBLTvPQ

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 3, 2023

A disastrous day for Tifosi

It was another disappointing day for Frederic Vasseur and the rest of the boys in blue. Last year’s Australian GP winner, Charles Leclerc, retired early. The Monegasque driver spun out on the first lap and sent him to the gravel trap. He was a sitting duck even before the second sector.

More salt found its way to the Scuderia’s wounds following a five-second penalty handed to Carlos Sainz. This happened after the second restart and was triggered by a collision with fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso. He sent the Aston Martin into a spin, which then caused a flow-on effect with the following cars trying to get around the turn.

Ultimately, Ferrari’s day ended with zero points. These are disappointing results for a team expected to put pressure on Red Bull and Mercedes. Leclerc has eight points in three races, while Sainz has 20 points. Their results over three races and 26 points collected are only good for fourth place in the Constructors’ Standings.

Late Alpine drama

Alpine looked on pace for a double-points finish on Sunday. The French pairing of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon found themselves in an advantageous position just when the second red flag was waved. Gasly defended P5 very well and was right up Carlos Sainz’s tail for P4. However, both crashed out during the final restart after colliding with each other.

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer said in an interview that the incident would only bring the team closer. Reports say that Esteban Ocon apologized to former AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly after the race. He said: “Obviously a very chaotic restart then honestly, it could have been any cars that I collided with. There were cars coming back on the track, obviously, Pierre was one of them. But no hard feelings. He came and apologized and as I said, it could have been anyone.”

Ocon added: “My tyres were hot. I didn’t feel like it was very slippery. But what was tricky was a little bit the light is lower, we couldn’t really see so well. But some drivers were just suicidal a bit in Turn 1, like Nyck on the inside. It was very close and obviously, there’s a lot to gain at the time, but a little bit too much for some drivers.”

While it was a sad day for the French constructor, Szafnauer looked at the silver lining and how the car performed. They certainly showcased that the A523 paces the competition and can easily hang within the top ten.

A banging day for Lewis Hamilton

On the opening lap and after qualifying in P2, Russell briefly led the race and boxed out Max Verstappen from the front. But, a strange pit strategy called him in during the Lap 8 Safety Car, and was shortly deployed for Alex Albon’s crash. That Williams incident called out the first red flag of the race, dropping the second-year Mercedes driver to P7 for the race restart. Although he passed the two cars in front of him and grabbed P5 on the restart, his recovery went up in flames on Lap 18 which forced him to stop on track with a power unit problem.

Meanwhile, teammate and seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton had a lot riding on in shoulders for the remainder of the race. He climbed from third to lead the race in the early laps. However, an incredibly quick Red Bull made his car look like a sitting duck into Turn 9 when Verstappen opened his wing in the DRS zone.

Hamilton survived all three red flags without an issue. He did benefit from his teammate’s DNF this time. Nevertheless, the veteran driver did well in defending against former rival Fernando Alonso. The 38-year-old scores his first podium finish of the season in P2 and shoots up to fourth in the 2023 Driver Standings.

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