Ferrari driver, Carlos Sainz, who qualified outside the pole, took the checkers at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday, March 24th. The win was the third for the Spaniard and his 20th podium appearance.

Sainz, who is currently looking for a team to drive for next year, is still recovering from an appendectomy which caused him to miss the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

Sainz's teammate, Charles Leclerc, finished second, giving Ferrari a 1-2 finish. Leclerc has 32 podium appearances in his F1 career and five appearances in his last six races.

With the 1-2 finish, Ferrari sits behind Red Bull by just four points in the 2024 Constructor Standings.

"We have been quick all weekend right from the first free practice and I think we have made a good step forward compared to where we were one year ago, when we left Melbourne having failed to score points," said Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal.

"We were not disappointed with our results in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, nor are we getting carried away because of this one-two finish. We must continue with this approach in the coming races because that's the only way we are going to get the results we want," added Vasseur.

Coming in third, McLaren driver, Lando Norris, completed the podium, the 14th podium appearance of his career.

Pole sitter, Max Verstappen of Red Bull, dropped out of the race on Lap 4 with a right rear brake issue, ending the three time World Champion's win streak at 10.

"It is unfortunate about what happened today, but we can see so far in the data that as soon as the lights went off the right rear brake just stuck on and locked," said Verstappen. "It was basically like driving with the hand brake on so, of course, the temperature just kept on increasing and then I could see smoke appear as it had caught fire."

Seven time World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, also dropped out of the race with a power unit issue on Lap 15.

Between the two drivers, they have accounted for the last 10 Formula One World Championships.

Lando's teammate, Australian native, Oscar Piastri, finished behind Norris in fourth with Red Bull's Sergio Perez rounding out the top five.

The closing laps of the Grand Prix arguably produced the most excitement on Sunday as Mercedes driver, George Russell, made multiple attempts to pass Aston Martin's Alonzo Fernando for sixth place.

On the final lap, Russell crashed violently into the wall while following Alonzo approximately 0.5 seconds behind as the cars approached Turn 6.

After a post-race investigation, the stewards eventually flagged Alonzo for "potentially dangerous" driving, dropping Alonzo to eighth place.

"I'm OK after the accident fortunately. I don't really know how to explain what happened," said Russell. "I was half-a-second behind Fernando (Alonso) 100 metres before the corner and then suddenly he came back towards me extremely quickly."

"It was clear that he braked earlier than he had done on previous laps and then got back on the throttle. I wasn't expecting that, and it caught me by surprise. I hit the wall and had a dramatic few seconds after that," said Russell, whose W15 ended up in the middle of the track on its side.

Alonzo's teammate, Lance Stroll, ultimately finished in the sixth position.

Yuki Tsunoda, in an excellent outing for RB Visa, finished seventh.

"It's a very positive result for us today. Yuki executed a fast and well-controlled race to top the whole midfield group and got us our first points of the season," said Laurent Mekies, RB Visa Team Principal. "He did not put a foot wrong all weekend, and with calm and determination got faster session after session."

Haas Racing also had an outstanding weekend finishing ninth and tenth (Hulkenberg, Magnussen). With a new Team Principal, Ayao Komatsu, Haas has secured four points in the first three races of 2024.

"It was a great day with a double points finish, the first time since Austria 2022," said Komatsu. "Especially after yesterday's qualifying, I said we expected to have better race pace - but to be able to get double points is better than expected - so it just goes to show that you need to be there."

Formula One now heads to Suzuka, Japan for the Japanese Grand Prix, April 5-7th.

Final Results Summary: Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Alexander Albon, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen

Australian GP - Final Results

POS	DRIVER			TEAM		LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS

1	Carlos Sainz		FERRARI		58	1:20:26.843	25
2	Charles Leclerc		FERRARI		58	+2.366s		19
3	Lando Norris		MCLAREN 	58	+5.904s		15
4	Oscar Piastri		MCLAREN 	58	+35.770s	12
5	Sergio Perez		RED BULL 	58	+56.309s	10
6	Lance Stroll		ASTON MARTIN 	58	+93.222s	8
7	Yuki Tsunoda		RB HONDA 	58	+95.601s	6
8	Fernando Alonso		ASTON MARTIN 	58	+100.992s	4
9	Nico Hulkenberg		HAAS 		58	+104.553s	2
10	Kevin Magnussen		HAAS 		57	+1 lap		1
11	Alexander Albon		WILLIAMS 	57	+1 lap		0
12	Daniel Ricciardo	RB HONDA 	57	+1 lap		0
13	Pierre 	Gasly		ALPINE 		57	+1 lap		0
14	Valtteri Bottas		KICK SAUBER 	57	+1 lap		0
15	Zhou Guanyu		KICK SAUBER 	57	+1 lap		0
16	Esteban Ocon		ALPINE 		57	+1 lap		0
17	George Russell		MERCEDES	56	DNF		0
NC	Lewis Hamilton		MERCEDES	15	DNF		0
NC	Max Verstappen		RED BULL 	3	DNF		0

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media)