Fernando Alonso made it three podiums out of three races at the Australian Grand Prix as the Aston Martin driver ended up on the right side of Formula 1 stewards again on a drama-filled Sunday.
Starting fourth on the grid, the twice world champion fell behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz on the first lap but benefited when Williams driver Alex Albon crashed early to bring out a red flag.
With Sainz and Mercedes' George Norris having earlier pitted for a tyre change, Alonso jumped to third and spent most of the race camped behind second-placed Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull's eventual winner Max Verstappen.
A second red flag brought another restart late in the race, and Alonso tumbled down the field after Sainz made contact with him at turn one.
However, the race was red flagged for a third time and the 41-year-old Spaniard was put back up to third again for a processional final lap behind a safety car.
With teammate Lance Stroll finishing fourth, Aston Martin moved into outright second on 65 points, behind Red Bull (123) and nine points ahead of Mercedes.
Difficult to understand what was going on
"We had a rollercoaster of emotions today," Alonso told reporters. "Many things going on at the beginning, but then also at the end. The last half an hour was difficult to understand what was going on.
"The second red flag probably didn’t help us, obviously with the incident there," he pointed out. "We got lucky again, to just see the chequered flag in P3. As I said, P3, P4 for the team is just an amazing Sunday.
"It was probably my craziest race here in Melbourne but it's great to come away with another podium," the double F1 Champion added in Aston Martin's press release. "We had an interesting battle with Lewis [Hamilton] for second.
"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.
"On the contact with Carlos [Sainz] after the restart I'm sure he didn't mean to do it so I think the penalty for him was quite harsh in the end," the Spaniard reflected on his incident with his compatriot driving for Ferrari.
"We have to be pleased with this start to the season and three podiums in as many races," the polesitter at 101 F1 races concluded.
Third in the first two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as well, Alonso's second podium of the season in Jeddah and 100th of his career was also confirmed by a stewards decision.
He was demoted to fourth in Jeddah by a 10-second post-race penalty but a U-turn by the officials saw him reinstated to third. (
Reporting by Ian Ransom, Additional reporting by GrandPrix247
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