Checo Pérez gets on the podium in a grueling race at the Australian Grand Prix

Checo Pérez's Red Bull, during the Australian Grand Prix. Asanka Brendon Ratnayake (AP)

Suspense invaded the asphalt in Melbourne, but not Checo Pérez's car.

The Mexican driver finished second in the Australian Grand Prix after a weekend as exhausting as it was full of courage.

His partner, Max Verstappen, had to give up the race after the car caught fire.

The one from Jalisco fought to reach his place on the podium and teach the two Mercedes a lesson.

The Australian Sunday looked to be very good for the Mexican who started from third position.

In front of him were Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.

Pérez struggled at the start against his teammate to try not to hit him with the car and that opened the way for a Lewis Hamilton who snatched third place from him.

Bad communication between the Red Bulls.

Chance, however, entered the Melbourne track and played bad for Carlos Sainz who had problems with the Ferrari and had to leave.

In the relaunch of the race, Checo Pérez had the seven-time Formula 1 champion in his sights. The Red Bull's power had proven to be superior to that of the Mercedes.

It was at that moment where the expertise is the one that surpasses the

.

On the tenth lap, the Mexican won the inside curve to overtake him.

A maneuver that once again demonstrated that the quality behind the wheel does not depend on the passport, nor on age.

The worker Checo Pérez fought to keep that valuable third place.

Hamilton lost the distance and was having trouble controlling the car's jumps.

From lap 16 to 19, the Briton took stability out of the pocket to close the gap and attack the Latin American again.

While that battle was going on, Verstappen asked to change tires;

The Mexican came out to change his on lap 21, something that made him go back to partial ninth place.

Hamilton also won the battle over Perez on tire strategy.

The rivalry between the two was shown again on lap 23. The Red Bull managed to overtake him and, again, another car that could no longer provoked the

which shortened the distance.

A setback because Fernando Alonso and George Russell were ahead.

At the second restart of the race, Checo Pérez was tall enough to know when to attack Alonso and his Alpine.

On lap 30, the Red Bull was able to do more and now he had to try to catch up with the more than two seconds difference that Russell had.

It was the moment of the Mexican attack.

“Tire management is more important than position management,” Russell was warned over the radio.

“That's not what I want to hear!” replied the second Mercedes driver.

The Mexican gave the second blow to the Silver Arrows team on lap 37 to take third place.

And another twist on the Australian script.

On lap 39, Verstappen had to abandon the race due to problems with the car that caught fire.

The reigning Formula 1 champion came out frustrated again.

That left Pérez in second position, without much possibility of fighting Leclerc at more than 14 seconds.

Doubts hovered over the energy drink team's garage.

Would Pérez's car also have a similar problem?

The engineers were trying to defuse the situation.

The only Red Bull in the Albert Park Circuit had a mistake when turning and paid for it by losing 1.5 seconds.

Behind him, fortunately, Hamilton and Russell were fighting for third place.

The Mexican, who missed the podium in Bahrain on the last lap and also in Saudi Arabia where he won pole, did not want any surprises and fought like a lion to take care of the tires and avoid any mistakes.

Thus, he adds the sixteenth podium in a career that he began in 2011.

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