Nico Rosberg gas taken the opening victory in Melbourne, winning the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton in an action-packed race.
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Rosberg’s Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton managed to leap from sixth to second place, thanks to a slow start from pole and a nudge from teammate Rosberg at the first corner, just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull F1 Racing Team.
The Ferrari driver was leading when the race was stopped following the huge crash involving Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutierrez. Both Ferraris were then left on supersoft tyres during a red flag period when a number of cars switched to mediums and ran to the end of the race, costing Sebastian Vettel a chance of victory.
When Vettel did stop on lap 35, Rosberg, Hamilton and Ricciardo passed the Ferrari, and a few laps later Hamilton got past Ricciardo for second spot.
Though Mercedes recovered to finish first and second, both its drivers are expecting Ferrari to remain a serious threat this season.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, and the Toro Rosso duo of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen completed the top 10, with Renault’s Jolyon Palmer narrowly missing out on a point in his maiden Grand Prix.
In the World Constructors’ Championship, Mercedes leads with 43 points, while Ferrari and Williams are in second and third positions with 15 and 14 points respectively.
But the race revolved around the contest of strategies, with Mercedes deciding to do two stops, and rely on their harder, medium tyre lasting, while Vettel chose to go on softer, faster rubber, with three stops.
“It is better when you are at the front, you can control the pace”, said Vettel of his opening stint.
“It’s a shame the other vehicle (Kimi Raikkonen) didn’t make it but it is positive”.
“Ultimately I’m very happy with third”.
Recounting the event, Hamilton said: “My [start] was quite eventful but fortunately I didn’t get any damage but obviously lost a lot of ground”. “I’ve had much worse in the first race and l’d take this as a bonus after being as low as seventh”, said Hamilton.
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Despite the stringent clampdown on what can and can’t be discussed via the pit-wall and the drivers, the rules were relaxed to certain extent only several hours prior to the start of the race.
