Carlos Sainz of Ferrari clinched victory in the Australian Grand Prix, marking a remarkable comeback just two weeks following surgery for appendicitis. This win came as Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen experienced his first race retirement in two years. Carlos Sainz, who was the sole driver outside of Red Bull to secure a race win in the previous Formula 1 season, managed to stay ahead of his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc. The race to the finish was made smoother for the Spaniard after George Russell of Mercedes crashed in the final lap, leading to the deployment of a virtual safety car.
Lando Norris claimed the third spot for McLaren, edging out his fourth-place teammate Oscar Piastri, dashing the latter’s hopes for a maiden podium finish by an Australian in their home race.
This marked Verstappen’s first retirement since the same event at Albert Park in 2022, putting an end to his impressive streak of nine consecutive race victories. However, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez speaking to Sky Sports F1 after finishing fifth in the Australian GP, believes the Maranello team would have secured victory at the Albert Park circuit even without the technical issues that effected the world champion:
“We just didn’t have the pace unfortunately. I think we struggled early on. We could see Ferrari and McLaren were a step ahead of us. We couldn’t get the balance into the window. There’s some work to do for the coming races. It was a very unique tarmac and throughout the weekend we were not able to manage the best possible grip level.” – the Mexican explained.
On what made the difference for his lack of race pace:
“Just as a team we didn’t have the pace throughout the weekend. We were struggling already from Friday and never got on top of the management of tyres. We just have to understand and improve. We already saw on a track like this, like Vegas, Ferrari were stronger than us and we couldn’t look after our front tyres.”
On whether Ferrari would have won if Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen did not retire: “Absolutely yes.” – the Mexican pointed out at the end of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
