Carlos Sainz has won the Australian Grand Prix for Ferrari, delivering a consummate drive in Melbourne after world champion Max Verstappen’s race ended in a brake explosion after only four laps.
The victory for Sainz was a remarkable comeback for the driver who is still recovering from having surgery for appendicitis and is out of contract for next season. Sainz drove brilliantly to beat his team-mate Charles Leclerc into second at Albert Park, Ferrari’s first one-two since Bahrain in 2022.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was third and there was a superb result for his Australian team-mate Oscar Piastri in fourth. Lewis Hamilton, who will replace Sainz at Ferrari, ended a difficult weekend retiring with an engine failure, while there was further woe for Mercedes when his team-mate George Russell crashed out on the final lap. Sergio Pérez was fifth for Red Bull.
Having started in second behind Verstappen, Sainz took full advantage of the Dutchman’s misfortune with a controlled drive at the front of the field after the world champion’s nine-win run came to a fiery end when he was forced to retire from the lead, his right rear brake giving out in an explosion and flames.
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Verstappen was clearly furious when he emerged from the car at being denied by a mechanical failure which caused his first retirement since Australia 2022. “We can see that when the lights went off the right rear brake stuck on, it was basically driving with the handbrake on,” Verstappen said. The team has yet to offer any explanation of what caused the problem.
For Sainz, this was an extraordinary win. The Spaniard underwent surgery for appendicitis only two weeks ago when he was forced to pull out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He is still not fully recovered, had lost several kilos of weight, could not complete the usual fitness preparation and simulator work pre-race, and admitted that coping with the intense g-forces at Albert Park after the operation was a unique challenge.
“This is amazing. Life is a rollercoaster, life is amazing,” Sainz said.
The win kick-starts Sainz’s season with the sort of confident and combative statement of intent the Spanish driver badly wanted. He is determined to make his case for a good seat next season and did so to striking effect in Melbourne. Sainz and the team will take great heart from such a competitive showing in race pace and for Ferrari to deliver with an operational calm control and assurance that was often lacking last season.
Sainz was the only driver to deny Red Bull a win last season, with victory in Singapore, and the first to do so this year. It is the third win of his career after claiming a first win at the British Grand Prix in 2022, and the first in Australia.
Verstappen had held his lead over Sainz into turn one but on lap two with DRS enabled the Spaniard burst past to take the lead at turn nine to the roars of an appreciative crowd.
Verstappen said he had lost the back of the car and slid at turn seven and eight, opening the door for Sainz, and complained the car was “loose”. He clearly had an issue as worse followed when smoke began billowing from the back of the car that began drifting backwards through the field. “I have smoke, fire, fire, brake,” Verstappen told the team as he crawled to the pit on lap three.
The right rear brake exploded in a cloud of smoke and dust on Verstappen’s way into the pits, then was in flames when he entered the pit box which lit his tyre up. The car was retired immediately.
With the world champion out the race was wide open, Sainz leading from Norris and Leclerc, with Pérez in sixth. The opening pit stops began early on lap 10 when Leclerc pitted.
Sainz, however, was looking entirely in control at the front of the field, happy with his rubber to stay out long and opening a solid gap of eight seconds on Norris, who having pitted was undercut by Piastri who moved up to fourth.
Sainz pitted at the end of lap 16 just after which Hamilton suffered an engine failure on lap 17, pulling out of the race and triggering the virtual safety car to end what was a dismal weekend for the British driver. The Spaniard resumed a lap later in the lead and with much fresher tyres than Leclerc in second, as McLaren moved Piastri aside for Norris who was on fresher rubber on lap 29.
On a circuit where tyre management is always vital, Sainz’s smooth and controlled style was paying enormous dividends. On newer rubber, he had opened a nine-second lead on Leclerc by the time Ferrari pitted the Monegasque driver again on lap 34.
Sainz pitted for the final time on lap 41, rejoining in the lead with a comfortable gap to Leclerc and the tyres to ease to the flag for a well-deserved victory. The race was completed under the VSC after Russell lost his rear and hit the wall coming up behind Fernando Alonso who appeared to slow at turns six and seven.
The stewards investigated the incident afterwards and Alonso was given a drive-through penalty converted to 20 seconds for “potentially dangerous driving” that dropped him from sixth to eighth.
Lance Stroll was therefore sixth for Aston Martin and Yuki Tsunoda in seventh for RB, while Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were ninth and 10th for Haas. For Daniel Ricciardo it was a home race to forget as the Australian could manage only 12th. – Guardian
