Handicap competitions
Almost as if he wanted to test his level of superiority over his opponents, Red Bull seems to enjoy doing a handicap race every time with one of their riders at the start of the season. In Saudi Arabia Max Verstappen he was able to recover from 15th to second after a technical problem that stopped his RB19 in qualifying. In Melbourne, on the other hand, the uphill road fell to Sergio Perezauthor of a serious mistake in Q1 – perhaps linked to a problem with the single-seater – and for this reason he was forced to sprint from the last starting spot, which was then transformed into a ‘start’ from the pit lane.
Effective comeback
Yet despite one track not particularly friendly to overtakingPerez was able to do even better than his box mate in terms of recovered positions, climbing 15 positions and finishing fifth. Of course, the satisfaction of the podium was lacking and this result allowed Verstappen to extend his lead in the drivers’ standings, but the Mexican still indulged in the whim of print the fastest lap in the racetaking back that little dot that the reigning world champion had ‘snatched’ from him.
The revenge of the fast lap
He referred to Perez’s little ‘revenge’ Helmut Marko. The historic Austrian consultant at Red Bull has never been particularly tender with Max Verstappen’s teammates, but this time he spent words of praise for the Mexican from Guadalajara, skilful and intelligent in moving up the rankings, also taking advantage of the opportunities that the red flag offered him. In fact, after the chaos of the last restart, Perez benefited from the penalty of Sainz and the accident of Gasly to gain two ‘free’ positions, thus rising from seventh to fifth in the final order of arrival.
Marko satisfied
“It wasn’t his weekend – commented Marko to the television channel Servus TV – but he set the fastest lap in the race and this will seem like a sort of compensation to him after what happened in Jeddah. Again, of course, he wanted the fastest lap. In the race he got the maximum – concluded the Graz manager – we knew that overtaking here is not easy, indeed it is quite complicated, and before the race we had already counted on seventh or sixth place“. Now Perez is second in the championship standings, 15 points behind Verstappen.
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