Valtteri Bottas’ race started well, but went down very quickly. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton stopped.
The third race of the Formula One season contained plenty of dramatic events. The most telling was that of the reigning world champion Max Verstappen’s a stoppage that offered Ferrari a chance at victory.
Ferrari took their chance when Carlos Sainz drove the race to victory and Charles Leclerc second. Up to third place Lando Norris.
– Especially physically, the competition was not the easiest. But I was lucky to be more or less on my own and able to control my speed, tires and everything else. This was not the most difficult race, Sainz stated after the race.
Verstappen stopped after the first laps. The Dutchman was able to defend his lead in the first corners of the race, but in the second lap Sainz overtook the troubled world champion.
Verstappen’s car started smoking and a moment later he had to stop because the rear brakes were completely on fire. When Verstappen entered the pit area, the right rear brake of his car appeared to have exploded.
– As soon as the lights went out, the rear brake just stuck on. The temperature kept rising. Basically I was driving with the handbrake on and because of that I felt the car was really strange to drive in some of the corners, Verstappen told Sky Sports.
The interruption is rare for Verstappen, as he left the previous time two years ago also in Australia. He managed to compete in 43 races without any problems, because the Red Bull car has been very reliable recently.
Catastrophic pit stop
Valtteri Bottas got a good start in the race and he got to 11th place at the start. After Verstappen’s suspension, the Finn seemed to be struggling even for points, but the first pit stop was catastrophic.
Sauber couldn’t get one tire of Bottas’ car in place and the Finn lost a lot of time. Bottas dropped to the tail of the race and was 14th in the end. Sauber has had problems with pit stops in every race of the season.
Hamilton also interrupted
A lot happened at the beginning of the race, because after less than half an hour Mercedes Lewis Hamilton had to interrupt. Fernando Alonso hadn’t been to the pits, so thanks to the virtual safety car, he got as high as fifth. He ended up sixth in the competition.
Mercedes had a sad weekend because George Russell crashed into the wall at the end of the race. He was in seventh place before the crash.