Despite a failed start, Max Verstappen won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, the third round of the Formula 1 World Championship.
By LL with AFP
© PAUL CROCK / AFP
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Max Verstappen (Red Bull) crushes the competition! Despite a failed start, the double world champion won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, the third round of the Formula 1 World Championship, after a race stopped three times due to accidents.
The Dutchman, who was on track to win by a wide margin before two interruptions occurred in the last three laps, beat former world champions Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).
On the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Verstappen confirmed the supremacy of the Red Bull single-seaters and escaped the drivers’ classification as he now leads his teammate Sergio Pérez, who finished fifth on Sunday after starting last, by 15 points.
With two victories in Bahrain and Australia, and a second place in Saudi Arabia (after starting in 15e position), Max Verstappen has made a superb start to the season and appears completely untouchable at the wheel of his RB 19. Apart from Pérez, whom he is now ahead of by 15 points, no one is in a position to worry him for the moment.
Red Bull, which had not won in Australia since 2011, crushes the constructors’ championship.
After two fifth places, Lewis Hamilton clinched his first podium of the season which seems to validate the rise of Mercedes, even if George Russell was forced to retire with his engine on fire.
Abandonment of Charles Leclerc
Fernando Alonso won his 101 at the age of 41e career podium, the third in three races this season at the wheel of his Aston Martin, which never ceases to amaze.
Ferrari, on the other hand, had a nightmarish day since the Monegasque Charles Leclerc had to abandon at the third corner. He finished in the gravel after hitting Canadian Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin while trying to overtake him.
Then Carlos Sainz was penalized five seconds after causing Alonso to leave the track on the third start with two laps to go. The Spaniard has therefore tumbled from fourth to twelfth place, which means that the Scuderia have not scored any points this weekend.
The other loser of the day is the French team Alpine, which saw its two French drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon collide shortly after the third start, when they had left respectively in fifth and tenth place.
The race was interrupted three times, after Alexander Albon’s accidents at the 7e tower, from Kevin Magnussen to 53e and two Frenchmen at 57e. Drivers and spectators were therefore treated to three starts on the grid, while the last lap of the race was completed behind the safety car.
After the cancellation of the Chinese GP, the Formula 1 World Championship will experience a four-week break and will resume on the street circuit of Baku, Azerbaijan, on April 30.