LANDO Norris scored his first points of the 2023 Formula 1 season at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday (April 2).

Max Verstappen won the choatic race in Melbourne, which saw three red flags and finished under the safety car.  

Norris, 23, started the race in 13th and finished in sixth after avoiding damaging his McLaren car and passing Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hülkenberg.

George Russell - who qualified in second - was forced to retire with a power unit issue that saw his Mercedes catch fire.

Norris's former teammate Carlos Sainz, who races for Ferrari, dropped from fourth to 12th after receiving a controversial five-second penalty for tagging Fernando Alonso's car shortly after the second restart.

Despite this, Alonso finished on the podium in third behind Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, as the finishing positions were taken from the restart.

Norris, who is from Glastonbury, now has eight championship points on the board after a challenging opening two races.

He told McLaren's official website: “A very good race. We had good pace throughout, stayed out of trouble with no mistakes.

“The team did a very good job. I think the pace today was stronger than our qualifying pace yesterday, so things came together nicely. Just a well-executed race. 

“I’m happy with all of that, and it's the first points for us this season. It's nice to get on the board and it's a good end to the first few races before we have a bit of a break and then head into Baku and the next batch of races.

“I’m happy, so a big thanks to the whole team and everyone back at the factory for all the hard work as usual and we’ll keep pushing.”

His teammate, Australian rookie Oscar Piastri, also managed to score points in his first home race by finishing in eighth.