Max Verstappen on Sunday triumphed in epic and chaotic battle with Lewis Hamilton to assert victory on the Australian Grand Prix and strengthens his maintain on the world championship.
The world champion started from pole and regardless of being handed by Mercedes pair George Russell and Hamilton at first, he saved his cool to win a race pink flagged 3 times, with a number of crashes.
Hamilton got here dwelling second forward of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who made it three podiums from three this 12 months.
“We had a very poor start, lap one I was careful as I had a lot to lose,” stated Dutchman Verstappen.
“After that, the pace of the car was quick. With these red flags, I don’t know, I don’t really understand. It was a bit of a mess but we had good pace and we won, so that’s important.”
It was a disastrous day for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, final 12 months’s winner, who spun out on the primary lap, whereas Russell’s automobile caught hearth on lap 19 and his race too was over.
The victory was Verstappen’s maiden win in Melbourne and Red Bull’s first in Australia since Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 triumph.
His teammate and winner in Saudi Arabia a fortnight in the past Sergio Perez sliced by the sphere to return fifth after qualifying final as a consequence of brake points.
The Red Bull triumph got here regardless of unbelievable late drama that noticed a pink flag come out when Verstappen had a snug lead from Hamilton and Alonso with two laps left, that means that they had a bunched restart for an all-out assault to the end.
But it descended into chaos when Alonso was clipped by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz as they jostled for place and despatched right into a spin, which brought about a movement on impact with a number of different automobiles coming to grief.
Sainz was given a five-second penalty, ultimately ending twelfth, and the race was stopped once more.
It resumed after a prolonged delay for single lap behind a security automobile – with no overtaking allowed – within the order of the earlier begin with solely 12 automobiles left.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton was ecstatic at making the rostrum.
“I’m driving as best I can and working as hard as I can but still, considering we’ve been down on performance and in straight pace, for us to be up there fighting with Aston is amazing,” he stated.
On a positive, sunny day, Lance Stroll within the different Aston Martin was fourth forward of Perez.
Lando Norris in a McLaren was sixth, Niko Hulkenberg within the Haas seventh and rookie Oscar Piastri, within the different McLaren, an encouraging eighth in solely his third race and on his dwelling circuit.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
