Carlos Sainz takes revenge and conquers the Australian F1 GP: Verstappen abandoned the race

The Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) won this Sunday Australian Grand Prixthe third of the Formula One World Cup, which was played this Sunday on the circuit Melbourne's Albert Parkwhere he signed, just two weeks after having undergone emergency surgery for appendicitis, an epic victory: the third of his career in the premier category.

Sainz, 29 years old, he brilliantly won a race in which his teammate, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc – who set the fastest lap – finished second; and the Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren) third.

The Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who continues to lead the World Championship, abandoned, due to a brake failure, after the fifth of the 58 laps that were given this Sunday on the Australian track; in which the other Spaniard, the Asturian double world champion Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished sixth, just one place behind the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull).

“Life can be a real roller coaster, but it is wonderful,” exclaimed the talented driver from Madrid as soon as he got out of the car and before playing the Spanish anthem in Australia. Summarizing his personal situation perfectly.

In a season that began – after Ferrari announced that next year it will dispense with his services – with a great third place in Bahraina week before suffering the hard setback of appendicitis that also occurred just before the longest trip of the year.

With enormous resilience and brimming with mastery acquired after constant learning over the years. In this way, an outstanding Sainz solved his problems in 'Down Under', who, although he took advantage of the withdrawal of Verstappen -the first since Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 2022, in Imola (Italy) -, had already overtaken the Dutch super-predator on the track. And that, with great pace in the race, he hinted that this Sunday he would have opted for victory in any of the cases.

After I did it Red Bull In the first two races – which Verstappen had won, ahead of 'Checo' – it was Sainz who led a Ferrari double this time. The most successful team in the history of F1. He will surely regret having done without the son of the double Spanish world rally champion – and quadruple winner of the Dakar Rally – to offer his wheel in 2024 to the seven-time crowned Englishman Lewis Hamilton – who retired this Sunday -, who will arrive in Maranello with 40 years.

Leclerc joined the Ferrari party with the fastest lap in the race and is now second in the World Championship, four points behind the 51 with which he leads 'Mad Max'. With one advantage over 'Checo' and seven over Carlos, who, with one less test, occupies fourth place in the competition.

Sainz, who debuted in F1 in 2015, aboard a Toro Rosso – later converted into Alpha Tauri and now Visa Cash App RB – obtained his third victory in the premier category. His first victory in the honor division of motorsports had been signed two years ago in Silverstone (England), headquarters of the British Grand Prix: a legendary track that hosted, in 1950, the first race in the entire history of F1.

Last season, the talented driver from Madrid was the only one to break the tyrannical dominance of Red Bull, by scoring the only one of the 22 victories that the Austrian team did not score during 2023. He did it on the night of Marina Bay when he won the Singapore Grand Prix. And this Sunday, by triumphing in Melbourne, he raised his list of podium finishes in the premier category to twenty; the last of them, in the first race of the year, who had finished third in Bahrain on the first Saturday of this month.

His victory is Spain's thirty-fifth in F1; category in which the other 32 were achieved by the incombustible Alonsoin a second youth at 42 years old.

Verstappen He had signed his thirty-fifth pole position in F1 on Saturday, the third in the first three tests of the year; and he faced the race from the first place on the grid, in a front row completed by Sainz, who had already shown himself heroic in a qualifying that finished second just two weeks after having undergone emergency surgery due to the aforementioned appendicitis.

'Checo' had been third in the main qualifying session, but the stewards decided that he had bothered the German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) – ninth this Sunday – during Q1; and they sanctioned him with the loss of three places on the grid, so he started sixth, from the third row and next to the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren), who finished the race in fourth position.

Was Norris the one who took the place on the grid initially reserved for the Mexican, starting from the second row, in which Leclerc accompanied him. Alonso started tenth, next to his teammate, the Canadian Lance Stroll -seventh at the end-, in the fifth row; behind English George Russell (Mercedes), bumpy right at the end; and the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (RB), who took eighth place.

On a track with four DRS zones where a compromise had to be reached between high speed on the straight with the necessary grip in many of its 14 corners; and in which it was clear that the management of tire degradation – it was run with a softer range of compounds than last year, the softest of all – was going to be essential.

The American Logan Sargeant did not come out, whom his team – without a third chassis in Melbourne – invited to give the Williams to the Thai Alex Albon on Saturday; who had broken his in free practice on Friday. And the Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Kick Sauber) did it from the pit lane.

In a two-stop race that concluded with a virtual safety car, the vast majority chose to start with medium tires, except for Alonso, who chose the hard one; and hamilton, who installed the soft one in his Mercedes. In a race that the seven-time world champion from Stevenage did not finish.

Tradition warned that some mishap was to be expected in Melbourne, even more so after the three red flags that had flown last year in Melbourne. Albert Park. But this time there were no accidents in the first corner and the start was clean.

Verstappen It went well, but it didn't open a gap initially and Carlos He overtook him between turns 6 and 7 in the second of the 58 laps that were given to the circuit in the capital of Victoria.

Right rear tire 'Mad Max' Smoke was coming out, so he stopped after the fifth lap. And he had to retire -because of a brake problem-; something that has not happened since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, in Imola (Italy) in 2022.

That was the first 'bombshell' of a career that would end with Sainz's explosion of joy.

Carlos began to push and Piastri stopped to put the pressure on, in order to try to undercut Leclerc, who did the same to avoid it. And after the fourteenth lap, Sainz was leading with almost seven seconds ahead of Norris, with 'Checo' in third position – 14 behind – and Alonso fourth, 17 behind.

Norris and the Mexican entered the pits on the next one, so at that moment, having completed the first third of the route, two Spaniards were leading the race; with Sainz riding 18 seconds ahead of Alonso.

The talented driver from Madrid went into the garage right after – to go hard – when the car stopped. Hamilton's Mercedes and a virtual safety car was declared. Which came in handy for the Asturian double world champion, who took the opportunity to install the medium.

Carlos pushed hard in lap 17 and, with the race rearranged, the two Ferraris were leading ahead of the McLarenwith Lando in fourth position, ahead of Alonso and 'Checo', who had accounted for Russell.

In the thirtieth, Sainz pushed hard and improved by six and a half seconds on his teammate and by nine on Norris; with Piastri riding fourth, ahead of Pérez, who had overtaken Fernando, 'stuck' like a limpet, very intelligently, to the Mexican's DRS.

Leclerc made his second stop at 35; one before 'Checo' did it – who, like the Monegasque, put in the hard work again. Sainz carried out the same operation in lane 42, returning to the track with almost six seconds ahead of his teammate, announcing that only a true misfortune would prevent his victory.

Alonso made it a turn later and Russel He did it with 12 laps to go: in which sixth place was at stake, which fell to the Asturian, after the Englishman had an accident in the sixth corner of the last lap; of a race that ended with the 'virtual safety car'. And not with the red flag that the Englishman demanded when he was still inside the cockpit, crossed in the middle of the track.

Despite the final wear of his tires, Sainz once again sang Sade's 'Smooth Operator' with which he celebrates his great moments in F1. That, before receiving hugs and congratulations from his very excited father, the 'Matador'; from his cousin and representative, 'Caco'; and his girlfriend, Rebeca, present this weekend in Albert Park. Two hard weeks of uncertainty and long sessions with the physiotherapist and in the hyperbaric chamber were left behind.

Carlos, named 'Pilot of the Day', even allowed himself to joke, recommending to the rest of the pilots “to remove their appendix”, something he equated to a guarantee of success. Before listening to the Marcha Real, the Spanish anthem, from the most important position on the final podium in Melbourne. In the very illustrious Albert Park.

The Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) won this Sunday the Australian Grand Prix, the third of the Formula One World Championship, which was held this Sunday at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, where he signed, just two weeks after having undergone emergency surgery. of appendicitis, an epic victory: the third of his career in the premier class.

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With EFE.