F1 Australian GP: Victory for smooth operator Sainz

Ferrari finally broke the shackles of Red Bull as Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix. To be fair, it was a technical failure that forced Max Verstappen to retire from the race on lap 3. The defending champion failed to win his tenth consecutive Formula 1 race. The icing on the cake for Scuderia Ferrari was that it was a 1-2 finish at Melbourne as Charles Leclerc took the second spot while McLaren’s Lando Norris came third.  

F1 Australian GP: Verstappen’s race goes up in smoke

It’s only the third race of the season, but based on the results, the only way to stop the flying Dutchman is to hope and pray for either a driver error or a technical snag as Verstappen continues to lead the pack by a mile. The Red Bull took charge of the race from turn 1 and was closely followed by Sainz, who started second on the grid. It was also a rare sight to see a clean start as no one tripped on each.

As the race began to look like a potboiler between Red Bull and Ferrari, the race Gods decided to slam the brakes on Verstappen’s outing as his car was marred with the right brake issue. With the defending champion losing pace, on lap 2 the Spaniard easily went past the pole sitter once the DRS was deployed. It was all doom and gloom for Verstappen as a cloud of smoke came out from the right brake and he had no other choice but to retire on lap 3. Later on, the Red Bull driver said, “The rear right brake was stuck and it felt like driving with the handbrake on.”

F1 Australian GP: A rare 1-2 Ferrari finish 

No doubt, Sainz was handed with a massive slice of luck, but the Ferrari racer deserved every bit of it as he returned from a surgery for appendicitis. He was nowhere near 100 per cent fit, but the Spaniard never put a wrong foot this weekend once he was behind the wheel. Like Verstappen, Sainz also started strongly and was shadowing the defending champion from the word go. After he overtook the Dutchman, there was no looking back.

Ferrari’s strategy was flawless for both drivers. Sainz took the chequered flag 2.3 seconds ahead of his teammate and stated how life is a rollercoaster as he bagged a podium finish at Bahrain, was forced to pull out of Saudi Arabia GP and then won in Melbourne. The Spaniard was thanking his team for all the support and singing ‘Smooth Operator’ by Sade. 

Leclerc, on the other hand, had to fight hard for second place. With quick pitstops by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, the Ferrari man latched on to second. He had to defend his position in the final laps of the race when Norris was gaining on him but Leclerc clocked the fastest lap at the right time to finish behind his teammate.

F1 Australian GP: Rest of the pack

It was a good outing for McLaren as Norris and the local boy Piastri finished third and fourth respectively. Even though it was a podium finish for the English man, Norris accepted that the team was still a couple of steps behind Red Bull and Ferrari. There were no last-dash heroics from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who did show some blistering pace when he zipped past Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, but after that, it was all very flat for the Mexican. 

There was an intense battle for sixth between Alonso and Mercedes’ George Russell but, unfortunately, for the latter, he ended up crashing in turn 6. There is a bit of a conspiracy theory behind this as while entering the turn Alonso suddenly slowed down, which according to Russell was ‘bizarre’ as he was tailing the Spaniard for some time and he never slammed the brakes even once. There were hints that Alonso might have brake tested, but the FIA stewards are investigating the incident. 

As a result, Alonso finished sixth followed by his teammate Lance Stoll, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and a great race for Haas as both Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen scored vital three points as they finished ninth and tenth respectively.