MAX VERSTAPPEN’S BID to win a record-equalling 10 consecutive races went up in smoke as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz returned from surgical procedure simply 16 days in the past to win in Australia.
Verstappen suffered a brake failure after simply 4 laps of Sunday’s 58-lap race at Melbourne’s sun-cooked Albert Park to finish his successful streak which stretched again to September’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Sainz took benefit of Verstappen’s first retirement in 43 races to assert simply the third win of his profession a fortnight after he was dominated out of the earlier spherical in Saudi Arabia with appendicitis.
Charles Leclerc completed second to finish a Ferrari one-two with Lando Norris subsequent up because the British driver landed his first podium of the yr.
Lewis Hamilton’s depressing begin to his closing season with Mercedes continued after he retired on lap 17 with an engine failure.
Hamilton, who’s leaving Mercedes to affix Ferrari on the finish of the season, has taken simply eight factors from the opening three rounds – the worst begin of his 18-season profession.
Each Mercedes automobiles didn’t make it to the top in Melbourne after George Russell crashed out on the penultimate lap. Russell’s Mercedes ended up on his facet however the Englishman was in a position to stroll away from the accident.
Greater than 132,000 spectators had been crammed into Albert Park anticipating one other Verstappen victory after the Dutch driver took pole place right here on Saturday.
And when the 26-year-old held off Sainz at the beginning, and ended the opening lap one second away from the Spaniard, Verstappen seemed on track to take his third victory from the opening three rounds.
However to the amazement of the report crowd in Australia, Sainz sailed previous Verstappen on lap two earlier than smoke started pouring out the again of his Pink Bull machine.
“I’ve smoke,” he mentioned over the radio “Hearth, hearth, brake, my brake.”
Verstappen was falling again by the pack and the group cheered his demise. He managed to get his wounded machine again to the pits earlier than his right-rear brake briefly caught hearth.
Verstappen remonstrated with efficiency director, Tom Hart behind the storage – showing to say “that’s f***** silly” – earlier than heading to his altering room and placing on his Pink Bull civvies and taking the lengthy stroll by the paddock to the media pen.
“The brake caught on from when the lights went off,” mentioned Verstappen. “The temperatures stored on rising till the purpose the place it caught on hearth.
“Having one brake caliper on was like driving with the handbrake on. I didn’t know on the time however I may really feel the stability within the automobile was off.”
Requested about his change with Hart, he replied: “That was associated to us doing a pit cease whereas the automobile was on hearth!”
It was a foul day for the winners of the previous seven world championships after Hamilton’s depressing weekend right here ended with him stopping on monitor as his engine expired.
Hamilton began eleventh and was operating in ninth earlier than his Mercedes gave up the ghost.
Hamilton’s earlier worst begin to a season had been again in 2009 when he was disqualified on the first spherical earlier than ending sixth and seventh. Earlier than immediately’s retirement, Hamilton had began the season with a seventh and ninth in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
However for Sainz, the person making approach for Hamilton at Ferrari subsequent yr, he had a day to recollect by main house a Ferrari one-two from Charles Leclerc with Lando Norris finishing the rostrum.
Sainz took his win below the digital security automobile after Russell’s Mercedes dramatically ended up 90 levels to the ground after he thudded into the wall in his pursuit of Fernando Alonso.
Russell reported over the radio that he was “OK” and was in a position to stroll away from the crash. Oscar Piastri took fourth for McLaren forward of Sergio Perez’s Pink Bull with Alonso sixth.
