Melbourne, Australia: Sergio Pérez came home in fifth to claim points for Oracle Red Bull Racing in their search for a third consecutive World Constructors’ Championship. Max Verstappen was quickly halted on his charge to match his own record for most consecutive race wins in Melbourne.
When the lights went out at the start, Max got away smoothly to take the lead into Turn 1, ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Behind the top two, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri held their starting positions, but as the field swept through the first corners Checo, starting from P6 due to a grid penalty, was overtaken by Mercedes’ George Russell.
By the end of the first lap, Max was already 0.9s ahead of Sainz and looked to be settling into the lead, but within a few corners, the champion’s race began to unravel. In Turn 7, Max suffered a moment of understeer and slid wide.
That allowed Sainz to close in on the long DRS zone that followed and as the pair powered toward Turn 9, Sainz edged past to steal the lead. Max was straight on the radio, telling GP that the “car is loose”. Moments later puffs of smoke began to appear at the rear right of his RB20.
At the start of lap 4, the brake issue forced the Dutchman to pull off the racing line. He returned to the pits, but with smoke pouring from the rear, it was clear that the champion’s race was over.
With Max out of the race, all eyes turned to Checo, who was still stuck behind Russell. However, on lap 9, the Mercedes driver dived into the pit lane to change his starting Medium tyres for a set of Hard compound Pirellis and when Piastri and Leclerc also made their first stops, Checo was suddenly bumped up to third place.
As other rivals pitted, the Mexican looked to go longer in clean air, but he was soon on the radio telling his race engineer, Hugh Bird, that his rear tyres were fading and at the end of lap 14, he pitted for a set of Hard tyres.
Checo was almost five seconds behind Alonso’s Aston Martin, but with pace in hand, he swiftly began to eat into that deficit and on lap 27 Checo dispatched the Aston Martin with ease, powering past Alonso under DRS on the run to Turn 9.
The final round of pit stops left the order at the top unchanged and as the final stint unfolded, it became clear that the gaps were solidifying. Checo pushed hard to reel in Piastri, but once again the Mexican couldn’t keep life in his Hard tyres and the gap remained static.
While the top five order held to the flag, there was late drama behind them. A lap from home, Russell appeared to lose downforce behind the slower Alonso into Turn 6 and slid hard into the barriers on the left side of the track. Though Russell was unhurt, his Mercedes ended up on its side in the middle of the track.
A Virtual Safety Car slowed the pack through the final lap, leaving Sainz to take the first non-Red Bull win of the season, with Checo taking 10 points in fifth place.
Reflecting on his race weekend as a whole, Sergio Pérez said, “I don’t think it was an ideal weekend for us, since Friday we had struggled quite a bit with the long run and we tried different solutions and compromises for Saturday but we couldn’t get a total handle on it.
“In the first stint the balance was super neutral, I didn’t have any rear grip and we completely destroyed the rear tyres and then the second stint I completely destroyed the front tyres.”
Hoping to bounce back in Japan, Max Verstappen said, “Of course, I am disappointed we didn’t finish the race as we had a good shot at winning and the car has been improving throughout the weekend.
“We knew a day like could come at some point so we need to be proud that we have had a great run with nine races in a row and we can come back stronger for Suzuka.”
The next race takes place at Suzuka, with the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday 7th April.