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Max Verstappen’s changes of equalling the record for most consecutive grand prix wins ended when his right-rear brake caught fire three laps into last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
That opened the door for Carlos Sainz Jnr to score a remarkable comeback win, two weeks since he was forced to miss the previous round after undergoing surgery on his appendix.
It’s been a long time since a driver missed a race due to illness then won on their return. Among those who’ve come close since are Lewis Hamilton, who didn’t take part in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix after contracting Covid-19, but drove to the podium on his return at the next race in Abu Dhabi.
Michael Schumacher could have done it when he returned to racing at the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix having missed the previous six races with a broken leg. However he was required to help his team mate Eddie Irvine’s championship bid, and gave up a win he could have had, finishing second behind the other Ferrari.
Two years earlier, Gerhard Berger became the most recent driver to win on his return from an enforced absence. He sat out three races after an operation to help cure a sinus infection and returned at the Hockenheimring where he blew the competition away, winning from pole position. It was the final victory of his career.
With team mate Charles Leclerc following him home second, this was Ferrari’s first one-two since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, when the pair finished in the opposite order. Ferrari have scored 86 one-twos, 27 more than the next-best team, Mercedes.
Red Bull scored a one-two in the previous race. The last time F1 saw one-twos for two consecutive teams in different rounds was in 2019, when Ferrari filled the top two places in Singapore and Mercedes did the same at the next round in Sochi.
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Sainz’s win, the third of his career, means he has scored a victory in each of the last three seasons. He now has as many victories as two world champions – Mike Hawthorn and Phil Hill – as well as Peter Collins, Didier Pironi, Thierry Boutsen, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Johnny Herbert and Giancarlo Fisichella.
Leclerc denied Sainz the fastest lap, taking the third of his career, giving him the same tally as Denny Hulme, Ronnie Peterson and Jacques Villeneuve. However he failed to equal his personal best run of eight consecutive front-row starts as he only qualified fourth.
Ferrari’s maximum haul of 44 points moves them onto 93, just four behind leaders Red Bull. Mercedes posted their first no-score since the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and Haas had both their cars in the points for the first time since Austria 2022.
Verstappen took pole position, the 35th of his career, but didn’t win from there. His last failure to win from pole occured at the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix, where he was beaten by Leclerc. In the intervening period he set pole position 18 times and converted all of those into grand prix victories.
This was Verstappen’s first retirement from a race in two years – his last was also due to a technical failure in the Australian Grand Prix.
Lando Norris joined the Ferrari drivers on the podium, giving McLaren their first appearance on the rostrum this year. This is his 14th appearance on the podium, and he has now beaten the record for most top-three finishes without a grand prix victory:
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DriverPodiumsTeam/sPodium yearsLando Norris14McLaren2020-24Nick Heidfeld13Sauber, Williams, BMW Sauber, Renault2001-11Stefan Johansson12Ferrari, McLaren, Onyx1985-89Chris Amon11Ferrari, March, Matra1967-72Romain Grosjean10Lotus2012-15Jean Behra9Gordini, Maserati, BRM1952-58Eddie Cheever9Ligier, Renault, Arrows1982-89Martin Brundle9Benetton, Ligier, McLaren1992-95Luigi Villoresi8Ferrari1951-53Andrea de Cesaris5Alfa Romeo, Brabham, Scuderia Italia1982-89
Norris arrived on the podium after McLaren told his team mate Oscar Piastri to let him through. Piastri, who later lost time with an error at turn 14, finished fourth, one place away from scoring a podium not only in his home country, but his home city.
Yuki Tsunoda scored his first points of the season and the first for RB, the third and latest identity for Red Bull’s second team. Kevin Magnussen also picked up his first points thanks to George Russell’s late crash.
Williams only ran a single car in the race after Alexander Albon’s crash left them with just one chassis. He took over his team mate’s car and finished 11th, as he also did in the previous race.
Over to you
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2024 Australian Grand Prix
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