Well what a stunning few weeks of the F1 holiday season where Australia won more gold medals than all other countries except for USA, China and Japan.

We could have beaten Japan if we had actually entered a break-dancer that was actually good at breakdancing (Japan won the gold) and was able to win gold. It was not only an embarrassment but grossly unfair to a 20 something or younger who would still be under 30 in 2 games times when it may be includeg in the Brisbane 2032 games, not 44 as our current triple zero breaker would be.

Which brings me to the point of the current F1 drivers.

There are a few who should seriously look at retirement at the end of this year. It is sad for me but personally I think Ricciardo, Alonso and Botas need to move into other areas of F1 where they could add value to the sport as a whole. Hamilton should move on after his stint with Ferrari as well.

There is a good crop of young drivers looking for drives next year and thereafter.

Also, if we want to get female drivers into F1 there needs to be places for them to fill.

We also need more teams on the starting grid. 26 cars should be the minimum that F1 should be aiming for then we could see more younger drivers entering the competition.

Anyway, moving on, before the break we were seeing a surge from McLaren and Mercedes attacking the Red Bulls and Ferraris for the major places with Verstappen not having as clear a run as he has been used to but coming into his home grand prix expectations were that he would resume his winning form.

Qualifying saw a mixed bag of results with Hamilton failing to make it to the top ten relegated to start 15th due to supposedly impeding Sergio Perez, poor Albon went from eight place to being thrown out of qualifying because his car's floor body was found to lie outside of the regulatory volume and Kevin Magnussen started from the pit lane after a qualifying 14th but Haas broke parc ferme rules to change the car's energy store and control electronics on his power unit.

The stand out though was Lando Norris in his McLaren beating Max Verstappen to pole position. Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren was next followed by George Russell in his Mercedes then Perez, Leclerc, Alonso, Stroll, Gasly and Sainz. So 6 makes in the starting line up and if Albon wasn't disqualified, it would have been 7 makes. It was shaping up for an exciting race.

Come race day the fans were there in force with the McLaren supporters hard to distinguish from the Verstappen fans.

The lights went out and Verstappen pulled away from Norris as if he was standing still and before you knew it Verstappen was racing off trying to break the 1 second DRS gap so that Norris would not be able to engage him. Norris did manage to get into the DRS for a few laps but could not pass Verstappen and eventually the gap went out to around 1.6 seconds. Just as I thought this was going to be another Verstappen parade to the finish line, suddenly Norris was all over Verstappen like the hungry biting midgy fly we get here in Darwin and before you know it Norris has DRS and swoops past Verstappen on the main straight to take the lead.

Then it became the Norris parade to the chequered flag.

Meanwhile back in the pack, Piastri could not maintain 3rd place having also been beaten on the start by Leclerc and try as he may he could not get past the man from Monaco.

The drive of the day must surely go to Hamilton who drove extremely well and sensibly to move up the field and finish in 8th place. Good tyre management and sensible overtaking allowed him to move from 15th to 8th on a track that is not necessarily the easiest to overtake on.

Russell finished 5 seconds ahead of Hamilton to finish 7th but I am sure he was disappointed with this result as I am sure he would have expected to be closer to a podium place.

Carlos Sainz was another outstanding drive having started in 11th place, he drove his way into 5th place again with some sensible tyre management and driving.

Perez filled 6th place in between Sainz and Russell finishing 1 place down on his qualifying place. Nothing flash here and I am sure Red Bull would have liked him to at least have retained the 5th spot he earned in qualifying.

Gasly drove well to be placed 9th in his Alpine some 6 places ahead of Ocon in the other Alpine. Gasly's personality does not inspire me but he seems to have learn from his days with Red Bull and is now getting the most out of the Alpine. Could be a future set of podiums in the making here.

Trusty Alonso finished in 10th lower than his 7th place grid position but again out drove his team mate to at least get a point for Aston Martin. He is still a great driver but I think he can offer more off the track than on it now.

Poor Albon finished 14th sadly after having started from the pit lane which is still a good effort but could have been a lot brighter weekend if Williams just followed the rules.

Ricciardo finished in 12th which was a good improvement on starting from 16th on the grid and well ahead of the other RB of Tsunoda who only managed to finish in 17th place having started from 13th on the grid.

The constructors' championship is getting tighter at the top with McLaren on 404 points now only 30 shy of Red Bull on 434 and Ferrari in third spot some 34 points adrift of McLaren.

Clearly each teams cars both need to finish as high as possible in the points to help secure a constructor's championship.

The pressure is fairly and squarely on Sergio Perez as expectations will be very high at Red Bull for them winning another constructor's championship.

Good luck to him as my money is on McLaren taking out the constructor's championship and even possibly the driver's championship though they would need Verstappen to have a couple of pointless or very low points results to pull that off.

Next grand prix we are off to Monza in Italy. One of the historic circuits of the F1 world and one that can provide some spectacular racing.

I am really looking forward to next weekend. I hope that the team that New Zealander Bruce McLaren created all those years ago tastes victory once again at Monza setting up for an exciting finish over the last eight rounds to wrap up this year's F1 season.

Looking forward to my next race report for the US Grand Prix but until then stay safe.