F1
Oracle Red Bull Racing's Mexican star earns his best result in Melbourne at his 10th attempt, as F1 came back with a bang at Albert Park after a three-year absence.
Melbourne will forever be a special place for Oracle Red Bull Racing driver Sergio Pérez; the Mexican made his Formula One debut at Albert Park way back in 2011 for Sauber, a landmark moment for a driver who has gone on to 216 Grand Prix appearances.
On a record-breaking day for the Australian Grand Prix, Pérez joined in with his own Sunday celebrations, finishing second for his first podium at the picturesque lakeside circuit on his 10th attempt, and snaring his sixth trophy after joining the team at the start of 2021.
The return of the race in Melbourne drew quite the crowd; the biggest attendance in the event's history over four days (419,114) streamed through the gates to see a new circuit layout kissed by the autumnal sun, and where excitement levels were unlike any other in the event's 25-year tenure on the world championship calendar.
While the race wasn't a thrilling spectacle – Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took pole, led every lap, set the fastest lap and extended his world championship lead with his second win this season – Pérez found solace in securing the silverware he felt had got away last time out in Saudi Arabia, where a maiden pole position could only translate to a fourth-place finish.
While there were smiles on one side of the Red Bull garage, Melbourne wasn't so kind to reigning world champion Max Verstappen; the Dutchman looked to be the only driver likely to prevent Leclerc from romping to victory all weekend, and challenged the Monegasque hard in the early stages of the race.
It was a race that, sadly, had an untimely ending, Verstappen's car crawling to a halt at Turn 2 with 19 laps of the 58-lap distance still to run.
Verstappen's non-finish promoted George Russell to third place for his first podium for new team Mercedes, and bumped the British driver to second overall in the championship standings, albeit 34 points adrift of Leclerc.
Here's how Sunday's race played out in Melbourne.
Pérez makes the most of it
After the one that got away in Jeddah, Pérez looked like a man on a mission the moment Friday practice got underway in Melbourne, finishing inside the top-three in all but one on-track session before the race.
Sunday could so easily have been better, too; the Mexican made such a superb getaway from the clean side of the grid that he had to check up to not compromise Verstappen into the first corner, and was ambushed by an opportunistic Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) to fall to fourth.
No problem; Pérez took the place back from Hamilton with a brilliant move down the inside at Turn 3 on Lap 10, and his pace immediately picked up to draw closer to Verstappen. The Mexican was a nailed-on podium finisher from there on, and third became second when Verstappen broke down ahead of him late in the race.
It was Pérez's best result since he won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year, a span of 19 races, but one that was bittersweet given the points Red Bull relinquished in the constructors' championship.
"It's a good result, but unfortunately we lost Max," Pérez said.
"It would have been great to have a double podium for the team."
Pérez felt second was the best result on offer on a weekend where Ferrari made a step forward, but was happy to reclaim the places he unfortunately lost when the race was neutralised behind the safety car.
"On the hard tyres, with the (Lap 27) safety car we were a bit unlucky that we lost two positions that we recovered later," he said.
"I think Ferrari were super-strong today, we couldn’t match them at any point. It's the first weekend that they're a step ahead. Yesterday I felt we were a little bit closer than we showed, but today they were on another level.
Oracle Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, while praising Pérez's race, conceded that Leclerc's pace – the Ferrari finished 20.5 seconds ahead – meant second place was an exercise in damage limitation.
"We didn't, as a team, have the pace to beat Charles today," Horner said.
“We move back to Europe now [and] we need to put this behind us, address it and move on. We expected to be a lot closer to Ferrari on pace, but they were untouchable."
While Albert Park is a significant part of Red Bull's F1 history – the team debuted in Melbourne in 2005 with David Coulthard and Christian Klien driving the RB1, getting on top Down Under has proved problematic, Sebastian Vettel's 2011 victory the sole winners' trophy in the bulging cabinet back in Milton Keynes.
Feast or famine for Max
Three races in, Verstappen's title defence has been a study in extremes; on track for a podium before retiring in the Bahrain season-opener, the Dutchman brilliantly won the second race of the year in Jeddah after a gripping battle with Leclerc. Australia, sadly, became a race to forget ahead of a long flight home.
Well clear of Hamilton in third, but cast adrift by Leclerc after their early-race skirmishes, Verstappen played his strategic card on Lap 18 by pitting for new tyres, hoping to come back towards the Ferrari after Leclerc's own stop. He got his opportunity following a safety car period caused by Vettel crashing his Aston Martin on the exit of Turn 4 on Lap 23. When racing resumed four laps later, Leclerc had a lurid moment coming out of the final corner, allowing Verstappen to attack hard into Turn 1 and Turn 3, but just being repelled on both occasions.
Disappointment soon followed on Lap 39, Verstappen crawling to a halt and seeing 18 precious world championship points slip through his fingers. Compared to his results elsewhere, Australia has always been an anomaly for the Dutchman – just one of his 61 podiums has come at Albert Park – and he was understandably frustrated after dropping to sixth in the standings.
"I don't want to think about the championship fight at the moment – it's more important to finish races," he said.
"It looked like quite an easy P2... I knew I could not fight Charles, so there was no point in trying to put pressure on him. But we didn't finish the race – it's pretty frustrating."
Horner sympathised with his world champion's sentiments.
"We don't know what the issue is yet, but I don't think it's actually engine-related," Horner said.
"We need to get the car back, we need to be able to look at what's exactly happened. I'd rather fix a fast car than try and make a reliable slow one fast, but we need to get on top of it."
Gasly's breakthrough, Tsunoda's Aussie debut
Pierre Gasly made the long journey to one of his favourite races worthwhile by driving into the points from outside the top-10 for Scuderia AlphaTauri, the Frenchman making a lightning start from 11th on the grid to finish ninth for his maiden points in Melbourne.
Gasly was downcast on Saturday after feeling both McLaren and Alpine had taken a step forwards compared to AlphaTauri in Australia, but snared two points to make it back-to-back top-10 finishes after coming home eighth in Saudi Arabia a fortnight ago. The result saw him maintain 12th in the drivers' standings.
AlphaTauri team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was one of four drivers making their first starts in Australia, and came home in 15th, running outside of the top-10 for the 58-lap duration. The Japanese driver sits one place behind Gasly in 13th in the standings, having not scored since the season-opener in Sakhir.
Sadness for Sainz, much better for McLaren
While Leclerc took the deserved plaudits for his drive, spare a thought for his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz; the Spaniard was unlucky to be caught out by a red flag in qualifying and started just ninth. Sainz had a slow getaway and finished the first lap in 14th, and didn't finish the second lap at all, overshooting the fast Turn 9-10 chicane and crashing to put a full stop on a weekend that could have seen him take the championship lead.
Ferrari's rival for third place in recent years, McLaren, left Melbourne far happier than Sainz after a problematic opening two races of 2022, where the British team scored just six points.
Both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo qualified inside the top 10, and the pair finished line astern in fifth and sixth, four-tenths of a second apart after 58 laps. For Ricciardo, it was his first points of the season and sent the packed Albert Park crowd home with optimism that his campaign is belatedly getting out of first gear.
Back to the heartland
Feel like F1 hasn't raced in Europe for an eternity? That's because (in F1 terms) it hasn't, with the teams heading from Australia to Italy for the third running of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix (April 24), held at the picturesque Imola Circuit a short blast down the autostrada from Bologna.
The most recent European race was held at Monza way back in September, 11 Grands Prix ago. Verstappen heads to tifosi territory as the most recent winner at Imola, mastering the drizzly conditions to record an emphatic 22-second victory in round two last year.
Pérez has good memories to draw upon at Imola too, at least on Saturday; the Mexican took what, at the time, was a career-best second on the grid in qualifying last April.
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