As the Red Bull driver suffered a brake problem at the start of the race, his Ferrari rival took control early on and never relinquished it, scoring his first win since last year's Singapore GP.
Charles Leclerc settled for second as Ferrari grabbed its first one-two finish of the year, with McLaren's Lando Norris completing the podium ahead of Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez, who in Verstappen's absence, led a very discreet Red Bull performance.
Our writers give their verdict on the third round of the 2024 season.
Scary ending noted, that's just blown a hole in the side of the (already weak) argument that Formula 1 is brilliant so long as you ignore Max Verstappen. Even with the dominant driver out the way, another champion retiring to introduce a tantalisingly timed virtual safety car, and the Ferrari duo very briefly teeing up a dice for the win, it all fell flat. There was a dearth of wheel-to-wheel racing. Granted, some of the blame goes to the narrow nature of the Albert Park lap.
The Australian GP was the best race of the tame season so far - yes, that's very much damning with faint praise. A proper, spectacular retirement for Verstappen plus an on-track overtake for the lead (albeit the Red Bull was kneecapped from the start) earn a couple of points. But those graining Pirellis inspired processions rather than divergent strategies.
Charles Leclerc's early charge to close to within a second of leader Carlos Sainz offered promise – how would the tacit number one driver fare against his effectively sacked stablemate? But it came to little.
In short, the fiery Verstappen brake failure created a headline. George Russell's crash is another. However, there wasn't a lot of substance beyond that.
Source: Autosport