It was the perfect start to the 2023 F1 season for Verstappen who cruised to victory by nearly 12s.
He was followed home by his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez who despite
being jumped at the start by Charles Leclerc, had superior pace and passed the Monegasque during the second stint with soft tyres.
[adrotate banner=”9″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.
It was a disappointing day for the Ferrari driver, who retired with an engine
related issue on lap 40 while running P3.
It wasn’t just reliability that hurt the Scuderia, a lack of race pace due to high
amounts of rear deg meant that Carlos Sainz, who has lacked pace all weekend
was caught and overtaken by a fired-up Alonso who claimed a brilliant P3 for
Aston Martin, confirming the hype over the winter.
The Spaniard had a poor start and was tagged by his teammate at turn 4 but
after dropping to seventh but he hustled his way past both Mercedes which
featured a great battle with bitter rival Lewis Hamilton.
After Alonso had checked out Hamilton shaded Sainz but couldn’t find a way
past. An injured Stroll finished a brilliant sixth after undercutting George Russell
and the points were rounded out by Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly, who had a
brilliant drive from last place, and Alex Albon, after he said on Thursday that he
believed Williams had the slowest car.
Tsunoda had a strong drive to P11, and Logan Sargeant behind had a brilliant
debut, finishing best of the rookies two places ahead of De Vries, with Oscar
Piastri retiring early on with an electrical issue.
The Haas drivers had a tough day. Magnussen and Hulkenberg came home 13th and 15th respectively, with Zhou Guanyu and Lando Norris, who stopped six times to top up his cars pneumatic system, in what was a terrible day for McLaren.
[adrotate banner=”8″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.
Ocon accumulated 20 seconds worth of time penalties in what was one of the
worst days of his career before Alpine retired him.
Red Bull looks ominous for the rest of the season, after a truly dominant display –
however, a great drive by Alonso shows he’s finally made a good career move.
Photo: Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team
[adrotate banner=”10″]
Get 10% off all official F1 Merch at TheRaceWorks.com using code ‘EF1‘ at checkout.