Sainz takes masterful win in Australia with Verstappen on fire... literally

The Australian Grand Prix is always a rough one for us Europeans, because we’re usually still half asleep when the race starts. Especially this year, with Max Verstappen being so dominant his victory is a foregone conclusion, it’s very difficult to stay awake. Then Carlos Sainz overtook Verstappen for the lead and we all started paying a little more attention. Then Verstappen’s brakes exploded, and we were all suddenly wide awake.

From the start, Verstappen was complaining about his car not feeling great. He actually started that complaint already on Saturday, just before he took pole position by three tenths. Complaining about the car without it going any slower seems mandatory at this point for dominant champions. Most of us still remember the days of Lewis Hamilton complaining that his tires are dead, and then immediately afterwards setting the fastest lap of the race.

This time however, there seemed to be some truth to it, as Carlos Sainz suddenly overtook Verstappen on the second lap. Most of us were wondering how long it would take for Verstappen to take the lead back, like he always does. The answer came one lap later: he wouldn’t. The rear brakes of the Red Bull began spewing out little tufts of smoke, which turned into a massive smoke cloud as the car slowed down to a halt. By the time Verstappen reached the pitlane, the rear right brake was completely on fire, making it clear that for the first time in two years, Verstappen would not finish a race.

The best strategists are in the cars

With the race now suddenly wide open for the first time since Singapore last year, all the teams were scrambling to redesign their strategy. Sainz showed once again that he is the best strategist in the Ferrari camp, by coming up with a new tactic on the spot and telling the team what he wanted. As Ferrari flipped through their handbooks looking up what on earth was Plan A and Plan B again, Sainz steadily extended his lead over teammate Charles Leclerc and the two McLarens. 

And he needed to extend that lead, because in the distance a raging bull was stomping through the field, angered by the red in front of the pack. Sergio Perez was unleashing all the power that his Red Bull had to make up for the points that Verstappen was now missing out on. Perez, out in tenth after making his pit stop, began rampaging up to the front, gaining about two seconds per lap. He first drove away from Hamilton, prompting the Brit to say “That car is so incredibly fast”. As it turns out, driving away from Hamilton wasn’t actually all that impressive, because the seven time world champion soon pulled over to the side with an engine problem. Two world champions out of the race, only one remaining: Fernando Alonso was by some weird chance suddenly leading the race as the virtual safety car came out, giving him a shorter pitstop and returning out on the grid in fifth.

Perez meanwhile continued his march forward by overtaking Russell for sixth and then rampaging past Alonso to take fifth position. Russell felt similar about the Red Bull as his teammate did: “That car is an absolute rocketship!”. (I’m sure that will be the only similarity between Russell and Hamilton this race…) But whatever wizardry had powered Perez up to that point, had suddenly worn off. The Mexican failed to get any closer to the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, languishing in fifth with a gap of more than ten seconds. This was again great news for Alonso, who could just hang on to his coattails and stay within DRS, using his own mastermind strategy to get further clear of Russell.

Sainz has a guardian angel named Fernando Alonso

Things stabilized at the front, with the top three of Sainz, Leclerc and Norris never really being in any danger. The last round of pit stops shuffled the rest of the top ten around a bit, which thanks to the retirements of Verstappen and Hamilton surprisingly included Tsunoda and Hulkenberg now.

But disaster struck on the final lap. Sainz reported that his tires were starting to die off, and the lap times reflected that. Leclerc was getting closer very quickly. It seemed like Sainz needed a miracle to hold on to that win. And a miracle was what he got, thanks to his countryman Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin driver tapped the brakes a little earlier than expected, which caught Russell off guard. The Briton swerved a little, lost control of his car, and in a repeat of Singapore last year he rocketed off the track and hit the wall. The crash sent him spinning back onto the track, where he tripped over his own tire and launched the car onto its side. With Russell’s car now cosplaying as an additional chicane on track, the virtual safety car came out again and the pack calmly drove to the finish line.

Sainz’s victory means Ferrari has now closed the gap to Red Bull to just four points. Leclerc getting second place with the fastest lap also allows him to leapfrog Perez for second in the driver’s championship, putting Leclerc just four points behind Verstappen. Several hours after the race, the stewards decided that Alonso was at fault for causing Russell’s crash, dropping him down from sixth to eighth, which means that Yuki Tsunoda brings in a staggering six points for Racing Bulls.