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2023 FIA Formula One World Championship
2023 Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park Circuit
Melbourne, Australia
Sunday, 2 April 2023
Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez will be aiming to continue his impressive start to the new season at the
Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, April 2.
The Mexican is putting real pressure on Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in the early stages of 2023 as he trails the reigning two-time World Champion by just one point in the drivers' standings after the opening two rounds.
Image copyright: Getty Images
Perez finished 11.987s behind Verstappen in P2 at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix before taking the checkered flag ahead of the Dutchman to win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix a fortnight later.
The 33-year-old started from pole position on the grid but was immediately overtaken by Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who was subsequently handed a five-second penalty for not lining up his car correctly at the end of the formation lap.
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'Checo' managed to pass Alonso on lap 4 and stayed in front for the remainder of the race to claim the fourth victory of his career.
However, Perez admits that reliability issues could become a concern at some point in the campaign if Red Bull don't stay on top of matters, with Verstappen forced to start from 15th on the grid in Jeddah due to a driveshaft problem in qualifying.
"Well, reliability is where it is. We saw it with Aston Martin [through Lance Stroll's retirement]. It's going to hit us at some point, but obviously we need to keep working on that, we need to have issue-free races whenever we can,' he said.
"We were in a lucky position in Bahrain but otherwise if we had to push to the end, we probably wouldn't make the end of the race so there are a lot of reliability concerns at the moment but hopefully they don't hit us anytime soon."
2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix results:
Winner: Sergio Perez - Red Bull Racing
Second Place: Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing
Third Place: Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin
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