The second retirement in three races has left Verstappen touched. The current world champion, who won a great duel against Leclerc to achieve his first victory in the second round of the course, left the Australian GP with a clean sheet, and did not hide his disappointment.
Verstappen arrived in Melbourne with the aim of getting closer to Charles Leclerc and confirming his aspirations to retain the title. Despite the Monegasque’s pole position on Saturday, Red Bull looked strong, but it soon became apparent that there was no match for Ferrari on Sunday.
The Dutchman held on to second place, and even came close to surprising the leader on the restart after the safety car, when he was a few centimeters ahead in the wheel-to-wheel battle in which Leclerc took advantage of the inside of the first curve.
But retirement with less than 20 laps to go leaves him sixth in the world standings, nearly two race distances behind Leclerc.
As soon as he arrived at the paddock after his KO, Verstappen did not really want to make a statement, and although his face hid sadness, his words did not hide disappointment.
“We’re already miles away so I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment, I think it’s more important to finish races. Because today was overall just another bad day, again.”
Without Carlos Sainz, who started ninth and retired on the first lap, Red Bull was unable to take advantage of the 2 vs 1 against Ferrari, and Verstappen lamented that his car was not as fast as his rival’s.
“I didn’t really have the pace, and I was just trying to manage the tires to try to get to the finish because it still seemed quite easy to be second. And I knew I couldn’t fight Charles, so there was no point in trying to put pressure on him. But we didn’t even finish the race. It’s quite frustrating and unacceptable.”
Before the race, Red Bull mechanics were seen working on the #1 car on the grid. Although team principal Christian Horner said he didn’t think the DNF problem was related to what they discovered before the race, Verstappen assumed that not completing all the laps was an option: “I mean, I knew there was a problem. So that it was always going to be a mystery to finish the race. This kind of thing, if you want to fight for the title, it can’t happen.”
Then, in words to DAZN F1 , he admitted that despite the suspicions of a hydraulic problem, he still did not know the causes of his mishap: “They have to recover the car and analyze it. It’s frustrating. We couldn’t fight for victory, but at least one second place would have been good points, but we’re not done yet”.
And finally, about the rest of the championship, of which there are still 20 races left, he stated: “I’m looking forward to it, but we have to solve certain things so that it doesn’t happen again.”
Photos from the 2022 Australian GP F1 race
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
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Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Photo de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
