Sergio Pérez claimed his first podium of the 2022 Formula 1 season, after an impressive drive at the Australian Grand Prix. It wasn’t all positives for Oracle Red Bull Racing though, as Max Verstappen retired from second-place, after yet more reliability issues.
Pérez drove well all race and actually fought his way back up to the podium places strongly following a poor start. The Mexican made a great launch off of the line but was boxed in by his team-mate, this allowed Lewis Hamilton past who Pérez re-overtook just a few laps later.
Pérez found himself having to overtake both Hamilton and George Russell following his pit-stop, after being over-cut by both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers. Overtaking both Mercedes put Pérez into third place, which quickly became second following Verstappen’s retirement.
The Mexican was happy to finally get a good result following some bad luck at the first two races, however he feels like it’s opportunity missed for the team following his team-mates retirement.
“It was a good result but, unfortunately, we lost Max and it would have been great to have a double podium for the Team. On the other hand, it is a good result after so many unlucky moments in the first couple of races for me. It was a very complicated race with the start I had and the safety cars but we managed to overcome it. My first start was very poor, we struggled a lot with degradation on the medium tyre, we were a bit unlucky with the safety car and we lost two positions which we recovered later.
“We got a few things wrong across the weekend and we were battling more with Mercedes than Ferrari so the pace wasn’t where we want it to be, but we will work on it. There is some good analysis to be done from this weekend because yesterday we were close for pole but in the race we were a bit too far off the pace. The fastest guys out there are Ferrari, we want to be up there fighting with them and today that wasn’t the case. If we can improve the car a little, then we can be more confident.”
“I already knew there was a possibility ahead of the race that we might not finish” – Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen’s championship hopes are already up in the air just three rounds in, after suffering yet another reliability issue leading to an imminent retirement at the Albert Park Circuit.
Verstappen had been running in a comfortable second-place all race, until he suddenly pulled-off the track having experienced yet another reliability issue. Verstappen’s second retirement of the season leaves him a sizeable gap behind Charles Leclerc, who looks unstoppable.
Verstappen was disappointed with the result, even though he was aware before the race that he might not make the finish.
“It’s of course very disappointing to not finish today’s race, I don’t really know what happened to the car yet, we’ll take it back to the factory and regroup. I already knew there was a possibility ahead of the race that we might not finish but I tried not to think about it. This is not what you need when you want to fight for the Championship, the gap is already pretty big. Of course, Checo did well to come second, he scored some good points.
“Overall it doesn’t look like there is an easy fix so we need to work hard as a Team, there are a lot of things to work on. We’ll wake up tomorrow and focus on the upcoming races and do the best that we can. It is of course a long season and a lot can happen; I think at this stage we need 45 races! [laughs]”
