Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won his second race for Ferrari in six months after leading a 1-2 victory for the Scuderia in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne with team mate Charles Leclerc coming second.
His achievement was made all the more remarkable given that just a fortnight ago he was recovering from emergency surgery for appendicitis that forced him to drop out of the race in Saudi Arabia.
Sainz' victory was made possible in part by a brake fire on the Red Bull of pole sitter and early leader Max Verstappen which allowed Sainz to take command of the race on the second lap, after which he didn't look back until the chequered flag.
“It was a really good race, I felt really good out there," he said in parc ferme after the finish. "I was lucky that I was more or less on my own. I could manage my pace, manage the tyres, manage everything
"It wasn’t the toughest race of all," he added. “From lap two when I was leading: I said with the pace I had yesterday that I knew I could get it done especially in clean air managing the tyres.
"Obviously the risk of a safety car or red flag here was always in the back of my mind, but luckily it was a clean race and not too much happened," he noted.
There were just two Virtual Safety Car deployments in the race, both for Mercedes retirements - including George Russell's dramatic last lap accident that left his car on its side.
"Sorry for George there at the end," Sainz said. "It looked like a big one. I hope he's okay. But I could still finish the race, win it and bring it home, a great feeling.
“I'm very happy, very proud of the team, happy to be in a one-two with Charles here. It shows that the hard work pays off
"Life sometimes is crazy," he admitted looking back over the start of his season to date. "What happened at the beginning of the year, then the podium in Bahrain and the appendix, the comeback, the win. It’s a rollercoaster!"
"Carlos has had an incredible weekend to come back after his surgery," commented Leclerc. "He has done an amazing race. He's done a better job all weekend - at least in qualifying and the race - and he deserved that victory.
"As soon as we stopped for the first time, for me it was clear," he added. "I'm really happy for him, I'm really happy for the team.
"First and second hasn't happened since Bahrain 2022, which are good memories that we have. It is amazing that we can do that," he added. "It feels good, mostly for the team of course.
Leclerc found himself running third on the track after Verstappen's retirement, and subsequently got the better of McLaren's Lando Norris via superior race and pit stop strategy.
"In the first stint we had to protect from behind so we had to stop a bit earlier," Leclerc explained. "I struggled a bit more on my second stint, I didn't manage the tyres well.
"The final stint was more positive, but first and second is the best we can do," he said. "We came into the weekend telling ourselves we needed to maximise our points, and there is nothing we could have done better."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
