The Red Bull drivers warned their rivals the team has gone up a step after taking their second consecutive one-two at the start of the season.
Max Verstappen cruised to his second victory in as many races at the start of the season. He was only briefly headed by Lando Norris after pitting during an early Safety Car period while the McLaren driver stayed out, and was easily able to take the lead back from the McLaren.
Sergio Perez was classified 13 seconds behind his team mate after collecting a five-second time penalty during the race following a near-miss with Fernando Alonso in the pits. Despite the delay Perez easily passed Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on his way to second place.
“We definitely made some good progress,” said Perez, who came close to taking second place from Leclerc when the race began. “I think it was a shame that we just qualified out of the front row because we had a great start and unfortunately Charles really kept it together and we couldn’t get through. It was a nice fight.”
An early Safety Car appearance prompted both Red Bull drivers, and most of their rivals, to make an early first pit stop and complete the race from there on a set of hard tyres.
“It was quite a compromised race, with the Safety Car so early, it was a very long stint on the hard,” said Perez. “It was tricky at times, especially in the beginning, and we had no warm-up at all. We were sliding a lot. It took us a long time to get through Lewis and Lando.”
Perez said the result was “a great day for the team”.
“It’s a very different track to Bahrain and we’re keeping strong. So we just have to keep this momentum going. I think we’ve taken a step forward from Bahrain and we’ve done good improvements from yesterday. So we have some things to tidy up and our time will come.”
Verstappen said he was entirely happy with his car’s performance during the race.
“Overall it was a fantastic weekend for the whole team, but also for myself,” he said. “I felt really good with the car and basically it was the same in the race.
“Of course, the last stint was a bit longer than we would have liked, but with the Safety Car you had to go for it. So the last two laps with those backmarkers with the cold tyres was a little bit slippery. But we had good pace all around. We could manage it quite well with the gap. So overall, I’m very pleased.”
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