Luck owed Sergio Pérez one after what happened at the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In the first he had to leave when he was third, while in the second the appearance of the safety car complicated his chances of victory and even a podium finish.
However, at the Australian Grand Prix the Mexican was very consistent throughout the weekend and his work was rewarded with his first podium of 2022, a second place that he achieved after the abandonment of his teammate Max Verstappen.
Checo Pérez started third and at the start he was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, but a few laps later he regained the podium position. His first pit stop left him behind George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, rivals whom he had to overtake on the tarmac to return to third place.
The position of the Mexican improved even more after the breakdown of the Red Bull RB18 of the current world champion, a Verstappen who had not managed to get close to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari.
After the race, Pérez explained what happened at the start when Hamilton moved him up to fourth place.
“Yeah, it was very tricky. I was holding my position and Lewis passed me on the inside, braked very late and had a very good first corner. After that I tried to catch up with him but then the virtual safety car came out and stuff,” he said. the Mexican.
During his first period on the medium tyres, Sergio Pérez did not have enough pace to break away from Hamilton. On lap 20, Red Bull called him to the pits to put on the hard tire with which he could have a better performance.
“My first stint was very bad. In terms of degradation, we had quite a few problems. With the hard compound, we had a little bit of bad luck with the safety car, we lost two positions, but we made it up later.”
Despite this, Checo considers that his first podium of the year was something that was a long time coming after both in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia he was fighting for the podium until several events beyond his reach left him out of the fight.
“Yes, it is a good result, but unfortunately we have lost Max (Verstappen) . It would have been great to have a double podium for the team. But if we look back, we have been unlucky in the first two races”, concluded the Mexican from RedBull .
