Matt Baker, Ted Kravitz and Tommo appear on the latest episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast, which you can listen to below; Kravitz on Max Verstappen’s Australian Grand Prix win: “I felt it was such a crucial win for Verstappen. It was as much of an achievement as his wins by 30 seconds.
Last Updated: 05/04/23 1:04pm
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Max Verstappen’s maiden victory at the Australian Grand Prix was “such a crucial win”, according to Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz.
Verstappen had never previously won in Australia, with a third-place finish in 2019 his previous best from six visits, until he held off Lewis Hamilton to win a chaotic race on Sunday.
The Red Bull driver looked to be cruising to a comfortable victory, having reclaimed the lead after losing out to George Russell and Hamilton during a frantic opening, but Kevin Magnussen’s crash and an ensuing second red flag of the race set up a two-lap sprint to the finish from a standing start which Verstappen won.
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Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Kravitz said: “I felt it was such a crucial win for Verstappen. It was as much of an achievement as his wins by 30 seconds.
“There were lots of things out there to trip him up and to make the tantalising Melbourne win, that has been denied him for so long, actually achievable. There was relief, you could sense, from Red Bull after that they’d done it.
“Do you remember I spoke to Max on Thursday and I said, ‘if I was to offer you second now, would you take it?’ And he was like, ‘no way’. ‘I’ve had terrible luck here, my best finish has been third. I want that win’.
“Alright, between laps nine and 50 or whatever it was, he was going to get that win no problem. But then at the end there were the little gremlins coming out to steal it away from him.
“Credit to Max because he managed to avoid all of them to win.”
Speaking further on the race, and particularly the bold driving from Hamilton (and Russell) that saw Verstappen overtaken early on, Kravitz sees parallels to when Hamilton was champion and was having to fend off the advances of the young Dutchman.
“What’s fascinating to me is, we now have a complete flip of the Mercedes-Lewis Hamilton seasons from 2014 to 2021, when Hamilton has been going for the championship, knowing he has the fastest car and needs to play it safe.
“You had the upstart Verstappen challenging him and wanting to get in there. And now you’ve got Hamilton challenging Verstappen, saying, ‘it’s no cares given’, ‘I’m out there to take all the risks’, putting it back on the defending champion.
“Hamilton knows he’s not going to win the championship this year, not unless something really weird happens, so he can go in there and be aggressive with Verstappen, knowing that he is probably going to have to give way.”
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‘Mercedes must be challenging for truest test of Hamilton and Russell’
While Hamilton might not be challenging for the championship in 2023, he does still have a battle on his hands with his own team-mate, fellow Brit Russell.
Russell is currently seventh, three spots off Hamilton in fourth after his retirement in Australia, but he outperformed the seven-time world champion last season.
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“It’s why we really want to see Mercedes challenging for the championship with Red Bull,” Kravitz said. “Because then we can see championship-challenging George Russell against championship-challenging Lewis Hamilton – when they’ve actually got something to go for.
“That’s what I want to see, to get the absolute best out of Lewis.
“I don’t know this for sure, but I imagine, if I was Lewis Hamilton and I wasn’t in for the championship, I’d be like, ‘well, I’m not going for the championship so if George beats me, I don’t really care’. You could reflect on 2022 like that.
“We’ve seen in the past that Lewis takes a step up when he’s challenging for the championship.”
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What’s next?
Due to the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix, there is now a four-week break until the 2023 Formula 1 season resumes with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku’s stunning street circuit.
The action is all live on Sky Sports F1 from April 28-30, with Sunday’s race at 12pm.
Between now and then, we will be bringing you all the latest F1 news via the Sky Sports app and website.
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