Follow usRed Bull’s team principal Christian Horner gleefully admitted his relief that Max Verstappen managed to get over the line in first without being involved in the carnage that occurred at Albert Park.
The race saw three red flags, two safety cars and plenty of incidents, that Horner thanked the racing gods Verstappen wasn’t part of.
The Dutchman started from pole but had to work his way through the lead after being overtaken by both Mercedes cars at the start. He had build a sizeable advantage over second-placed Lewis Hamilton, but a red flag just two laps from the finish saw the reigning champion position under threat.
Fortunately for him and his team boss, he kept his cool and kept the position, while carnage enrolled behind him as the two Spaniards Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz tangled, sending Alonso to the wall and Sainz recieving a 5-second penalty afterwards demoting him back to 12th place.
“When you’re the leader, you can only lose from that point,” Horner said.
“It was just a question of go out there and do the best start we could. We’d had two pretty average starts in the previous two attempts, but the third one, he nailed, and all the chaos ensued behind him, which thankfully we weren’t part of.
“Then obviously the red flag came out, and the race was never going to get restarted after that – a few cars sustaining quite a bit of damage at the end there.”
With this win Verstappen lead the Drivers Championship with 69 points, 15 clear of teammate Sergio Perez with 54, and Alonso in 3rd with 45.
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