John N
The Australian Grand Prix came to a close on Sunday leaving many drivers with plenty f disappointments and frustration. Some of such drivers include:
Carlos Sainz
A disappointing end to Carlos Sainz's Sunday on Lap 1 😔
Keep your head up Carlos, plenty more races to come! 🙌#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/0F7mNT6oxx
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 10, 2022
Carlos Sainz was left angry by his Australian Grand Prix qualifying, after red flags and an issue with starting his car left him P9 on the grid. But it would get worse for the Spaniard at Sunday’s race start, as he spun his Ferrari into the gravel with just one lap of the Grand Prix complete.
Sainz had opted to start on the hard tires at Albert Park, but that decision looked to have hurt him on Lap 1, as he was demoted to 14th place. But then, midway around Lap 2, Sainz appeared to go in too hot to the Turn 9 chicane, running across the grass before spinning into the gravel at the exit of Turn 10.
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel capped off a weekend to forget in Melbourne with a mid-race spin into the wall and out of the race – an incident that brought out the second Safety Car of the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
Having started P17, Vettel was lapping out of the points on Lap 23 when he got onto the kerbs at the exit of Turn 4, rotating his Aston Martin AMR22 into the wall before parking up and retiring.
It brings to an end Vettel’s first race weekend of 2022 – the German having missed Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix with Covid-19 – but it’s one that he won’t remember with fondness, having suffered an engine issue in FP1, missed FP2 because of it, crashed in FP3 and been fined for riding a scooter on track and speeding in the pit lane to boot.
Max Verstappen
Heartbreak for Max Verstappen in Australia 💔
An podium opportunity missed for the Dutchman after a strong showing ended prematurely with a car problem 😫#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/DXeOAe1r4X
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 10, 2022
Max Verstappen was running in P2 in the Australian Grand Prix behind leader Charles Leclerc when he was forced to pull up at Turn 2 on Lap 39 of 58, with smoke pouring from his Red Bull RB18.
Verstappen was quick to jump out of the car, before instructing the marshal to dowse fire extinguisher fluid into the RB18’s smoking innards. It means that Verstappen has now retired from two of the first three Grands Prix in 2022 – having won the other one in Saudi Arabia.
Verstappen’s mechanics had been seen scrambling around his car on the grid fixing an issue prior to the race. When asked if that had been related to his retirement, Verstappen replied:
“I knew there was a problem, so there was always going to be a question mark over finishing the race, but these kinds of things, if you want to fight for the title, cannot happen.”
“We’re already miles behind, I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment. I think it’s more important to finish races. Of course, today was in general just a bad day again, just not really having the pace, I was just managing my tires, trying to just bring it to the end because it looked like quite an easy P2 anyway. I knew I could not fight Charles and there was no point to try and put pressure on him. But we didn’t even finish the race, so it’s pretty frustrating and unacceptable.”
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