Red Bull's Max Verstappen scored his second victory of the 2023 Formula 1 season and the 80th of his F1 career at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Australia. Verstappen, who has never taken the pole or a win at the Australian GP, did both this weekend at Melbourne's Albert Park Circuit.

Red Bull has not won the Australian GP since 2011.

"It's my first win in Australia which feels really good, it's also been a while for the Team so it means a lot to us all, especially as Checo also had a good recovery drive today. It's been a chaotic day but it's great to see that the fans had a great time," said the Belgian born driver who races under the Dutch flag.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton finished second with Aston Martin's Alonzo Fernando taking the final podium position. It was the first time three World Champions have shared a podium since 2018

"We had strong pace today and it was really close with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. That is good news for us, and I think we have made a step forward this weekend, both on one-lap and race pace," said Wolff, Team Principal & CEO.

For his part, Alonzo seemed to relish the battle with the seven time World Champion.

"It was probably my craziest race here in Melbourne but it's great to come away with another podium. There were many things going on all afternoon and we had an interesting battle with Lewis for second," said Alonzo. "The pace of the car was good and we kept up the pressure on Lewis, but he did a good job and didn't really make any mistakes."

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll finished behind his teammate with a P4 finish. After starting rear on the grid due to qualifying troubles, Red Bull's Sergio Perez finished fifth.

"Checo also drove phenomenally well, bringing home the fastest lap and securing P5 in the end. It was a great recovery, from the back of the grid, in the pits, on a track where it is very difficult to overtake," said Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner.

Pierre Gasly and Estaban Ocon, who were looking at a double points weekend for Alpine Racing, finished outside the top 10 due to an incident between the two French drivers on a Lap 56 of 58 red flag restart.

"I'm very disappointed in the outcome of today's race. We were in fifth place for most of it, chasing Carlos [Sainz] for fourth place and we showed really good race pace," said Gasly. "For us to be so close to scoring ten points and leaving without any is a bitter one for us to take."

"I'm glad both Esteban and I are OK after the incident," added Gasly, who took a hard hit on the outside wall after the contact with his teammate.

With Ferrari's Carlos Sainz also finishing outside the top 10 due to a 5 second contact penalty on the Lap 56 red flag start, McLaren's Oscar Piastri, Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu and AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda all finished in the points with P8, P9 and P10 finished respectively.

The top 10 ten finish for rookie driver Oscar Piastri was the first of his three race F1 career. The finish occurred at his true hometown track to the delight of the Melbourne crowd.

"P8, I didn't expect that at the start of the day! I'll definitely take it," said Piastri. "Obviously a crazy, crazy race but we stayed in there when it mattered. I'm so happy to get my first points in Melbourne and want to thank all of the home fans and papaya fans for all their support this week."

Piastri's McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, finished in P6, bringing home a double points weekend for the Woking, UK-based team which has seen its share of struggles this season.

Zhou, a second year driver, previously had three top ten finishes.

"P9 at the chequered flag is a good result, especially considering where we started and the challenging weekend we had," said Zhou. "There are positives to take - we had a really good start, which is something we worked really hard on, and we didn't do any mistakes in a race where there were plenty of spills."

Veteran Nico Hulkenberg had an impressive seventh place finish for Haas Racing. Haas has scored points in two of the three 2023 Grand Prix's.

Mercedes driver George Russell, after qualifying outside the pole, did not finish the race due to a power unit fire on Lap 16. Russell emerged from the serious fire incident unscathed

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc did not complete a single lap after contact with Stroll on race start sent the Monegasque driver into the Turn 2-3 gravel trap at Albert Circuit Park.

Pos	Driver		Team		Laps	Gap

1	Verstappen	Red Bull	58	2h 32:38.371
2	Hamilton	Mercedes	58	+ 0:00.179
3	Alonso		Aston Martin	58	+ 0:00.769
4	Stroll		Aston Martin	58	+ 0:03.082
5	Perez		Red Bull	58	+ 0:03.320
6	Norris		McLaren		58	+ 0:03.701
7	Hulkenberg	Haas		58	+ 0:04.939
8	Piastri		McLaren		58	+ 0:05.382
9	Zhou		Alfa Romeo	58	+ 0:05.713
10	Tsunoda		AlphaTauri	58	+ 0:06.052
11	Bottas		Alfa Romeo	58	+ 0:06.513
12	Sainz		Ferrari		58	+ 0:06.594
13	Gasly		Alpine		56	+ 2 Laps
14	Ocon		Alpine		56	+ 2 Laps
15	de Vries	AlphaTauri	56	+ 2 Laps
16	Sargeant	Williams	56	+ 2 Laps
17	Magnussen	Haas		52	+ 6 Laps
	Russell		Mercedes	17	Engine
	Albon		Williams	6	Accident
	Leclerc		Ferrari		0	Spun Off

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media & Alpine F1 Media)