Sainz wins Australian GP in Ferrari 1-2 as Verstappen fails to finish
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz surged to victory at the Australian Grand Prix Sunday to snap Red Bull’s winning start to the season after three-time world champion Max Verstappen sensationally failed to finish.
The Spaniard, who had appendicitis surgery two weeks ago, took the chequered flag 2.3 seconds ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, with Mclaren’s Lando Norris a bold third.
It was his third grand prix win and first since Singapore last year.
“I’m happy to be in a one-two with Charles here. It shows that hard work pays off,” said Sainz, who missed the last race in Saudi Arabia and was bed-ridden for a week afterwards.
“Life sometimes is crazy ... the podium in Bahrain, then the appendix, the comeback, the win. It’s a rollercoaster but I loved it and I’m extremely happy.”
While he celebrated, it was a disastrous day for pole-sitter Verstappen, who limped out with smoke billowing from his car after being passed by front-row partner Sainz on lap two.
The Dutchman blamed a brake issue for his first retirement in two years.
“What we can see so far from the data is that as soon as the lights went off the right-rear brake just stuck on,” he said.
“It just caused the damage and it kept on increasing so it was also basically driving with the handbrake on.”
It was also a horror race for Lewis Hamilton in his inconsistent Mercedes, with the British seven-time world champion suffering engine failure on lap 17.
To add to Mercedes’ woes, teammate George Russell crashed heavily on the last lap with the car ending on its side.
Russell climbed out unscathed, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso faulted for “potentially dangerous” driving over the incident and slapped with a 20-second penalty.