F1 Takeaways: Action-packed Australian GP more than just another Verstappen win

Perhaps the Australian Grand Prix was less about the destination and more about the journey and the friends (or enemies) we made along the way.

Max Verstappen was victorious from pole position Sunday, scoring his second win of the season and third for Red Bull in as many races to start the 2023 campaign.

Lewis Hamilton came in second to earn Mercedes' first podium of the year and (you probably already guessed it) Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso finished third for the third consecutive Grand Prix.

While the end result, or at least two-thirds of the podium, may have been predictable, it was an action-packed start and finish around Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne.

With plenty of drama to go around, here are takeaways from the Australian GP.

Still no stoppin' Verstappen

The only challenge for Verstappen heading into the weekend was he hadn't won in Australia before. Consider that checked off as he notched Grand Prix victory No. 37 of his career and first Down Under.

The final classification may show Verstappen won by 0.179 seconds but it was another dominant performance from the Dutch driver. Sure, Verstappen lost the lead to George Russell on the first turn and fell behind Hamilton as well on the opening lap, but after the first restart and once the DRS kicked in, there was no match for the Red Bull.

Verstappen breezed by Hamilton into the lead during Lap 12 and gained a two-second advantage by the time he rounded the circuit. The gap quickly turned into a 10-second margin and only closed during the final handful of laps when the marshals got a workout waving the red flags.

Meanwhile, teammate Sergio Perez was forced to start from pit lane after failing to set a time during qualifying, but still managed to finish in the top five, proving once again there's little to stop the Red Bulls other than themselves. Perez also scored the bonus point for setting the fastest lap and now sits 15 points back of Verstappen in the drivers' championship.

Silver lining for the Silver Arrows

Hamilton became the first driver outside of Verstappen, Perez, and Alonso to finish on the podium this year. However, what a Sunday it could have been for Mercedes as there's bad luck and then there's whatever happened to George Russell.

Russell, who just missed out on qualifying for pole position by 0.236 seconds, beat Verstappen on the inside line into the first turn and held the lead until Alex Albon crashed on Lap 7. Russell and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz dove into the pits, however, the gravel on the track caused by Albon's accident brought out the (first of many) red flags and a complete halt to the Grand Prix. That gifted the rest of the field a cheaper pit stop and negated any advantage Russell hoped to gain.

Russell managed to work his way back up into fourth but perhaps it wasn't meant to be regardless as his engine caught fire on Lap 18 and forced him to retire.

Despite that misfortune, Mercedes is proving to be more competitive than anticipated and showing that building off of last year's momentum rather than ripping it up and starting all over again, à la Aston Martin, has some advantages.

The rule of thirds

Speaking of Aston Martin, forget about Russell-mania as Alonso-mania continues to run wild. Let the Alonso renaissance continue as the last time the 41-year-old Spaniard had three consecutive podium finishes was a decade ago when he drove for Ferrari. Alonso is also on pace for his best season since the aforementioned 2013 campaign when he finished runner-up in the championship.

Teammate Lance Stroll finished fourth Sunday to post his best result of the Aston Martin era and is now up to sixth in the championship with 20 points. Check this out: Stroll has already surpassed his points total from last season. Yes, seriously. The team has improved that much.

Pointless weekend for Ferrari

You're probably thinking — "What did Ferrari screw up this time?" — and they didn't disappoint when it came to finding new and interesting ways to, um, disappoint.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc entered Australia as the defending champion but didn't make it past the third corner of the opening lap as he made contact with Stroll and ended up beached in the gravel. Leclerc pleaded he had been hit but the stewards chalked it up as a racing incident.

Meanwhile, teammate Sainz had a miserable outing in Melbourne a year ago spinning out only a handful of laps into the Grand Prix. It looked like a reversal of fortunes as Sainz made a brilliant move on Pierre Gasly to grab P4 on Lap 25 and a podium finish was within reach after the red flags bunched up the field.

However, Sainz made contact with Alonso that was deemed worthy of a five-second penalty. This time, having the field packed together worked against Sainz as that penalty turned a fourth place and 12 points into a 12th place — last among all cars that actually finished the Grand Prix — and a goose egg of zero points.

It was a pointless outing for Ferrari, literally and figuratively, and one that was entirely self-inflicted.

Some praise for McLaren

McLaren had been feeling the heat with neither Lando Norris nor Oscar Piastri earning points during the first two races. Well, what do you know, McLaren had a double-points finish — vaulting from last place to fifth in the constructors' championship — and is suddenly looking like the best of the midfield.

The McLaren drivers were in good standing to score points even before the late parade of red flags, and Norris and Piastri finished sixth and eighth, respectively, following Sainz's penalty. As if Piastri's first time racing at his home circuit in F1 wasn't special enough, it was also the first-ever points finish for the 21-year-old rookie.

Pit stops

• Every team on the grid now has at least one point as AlphaTauri was gifted its first of 2023 when Yuki Tsunoda was bumped up into 10th place due to Sainz's penalty. We don't want to give AlphaTauri too much credit though since Tsunoda only had to beat one car to the finish line: Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo. Bottas had a dreadful weekend having to start from the pit lane and looked out of sorts all throughout the Grand Prix.

• Tough one for Alpine as Gasly and Esteban Ocon took each other out on the penultimate lap — just when we were praising them for getting along, of course. Gasly was running as high as P4 and likely would have not only scored his best finish with his new team but his best result since Baku almost a year ago when he was still with AlphaTauri.

• If penalty points are like technical fouls in the NBA, then Gasly is Luka Doncic. Yes, even when teammates crash there could be a penalty and Gasly has accumulated enough that one more will result in a suspension. Gasly must be breathing a sigh of relief no further action was taken following his incident with Ocon.