Max Verstappen, for the second time in 2022, did not finish the race. The Red Bull driver was left fuming mid-race after his car stopped on turn two of the 40th lap at the Australian Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, in the mean time, won the race at the Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne by over 20 seconds. 

With the win, Leclerc now leads the drivers’ standings by 39 points. Verstappen is back at sixth with 25 while his team, Red Bull, trail Ferrari (104) in the contructors’ table by 49 points. Mercedes are at 65. 

Verstappen had to retire his car at the Bahrain Grand Prix, opening race of 2022, with break, steering and fuel problems. The 24-year-old won the Saudi Arabia GP. However, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that he is not sure if an engine failure resulted in the Ducthman’s heartbreak in Australia. 

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“It’s totally understandable, his frustration. That was a really disappointing result not to finish the race. We don’t know what the issue is yet – I don’t think it’s actually engine-related. I think it might be a fuel issue but we need to get the car back. We need to be able to look at what exactly happened. Until we get the car back, we don’t have the data [or the] info. [It’s] pretty frustrating,” Horner told Sky F1.

The driver, Verstappen, said that his retirement was ‘unacceptable’. 

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“We are already miles behind. I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment, it is more important to finish races,” Verstappen told Sky Sports. 

Meanwhile, his teammate Sergio Perez recovered from a slow start to finish second. Verstappen’s prime rival last season, Lewis Hamilton, finished fourt. The other Mercedes, George Russel’s, finished third. 

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“Of course, today was in general a bad day again. Not really having the pace, I was just managing my tyres to bring it to the end. It looked like an easy P2 anyway and I knew I could not fight Charles so there was no point in trying to put pressure on him. We didn’t even finish the race so it is pretty frustrating and unacceptable,” Verstappen further said. 

The defending champion had said on radio, while retiring, that he could smell a “weird fluid” from his car.

“I knew there was a problem so there was always gonna be a question mark in finishing the race. These kind of things, if you want to fight for the title, these things cannot happen.”