The big disappointment for the 80,000 spectators Saturday came in the last stage of qualifying when local hope Daniel Ricciardo slid his Red Bull rear first into the gravel and stopped at turn 14, and walked off the track as the red flag came out.
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“It’s been a privilege to be racing in an era with [Vettel] and we’re now finally at a period of time when we can actually have a real race”, he said.
Vettel and Hamilton dueled for the 2010 crown, with the German winning for Red Bull as then-McLaren driver Hamilton missed out. “Their pace in testing was true and their speed in that first stint on the ultra soft tyres was fantastic”.
But when Hamilton pitted for fresh tyres at the end of lap 17 he rejoined behind Max Verstappen.
“I have and I am going to continue to work because there is going to be some really tough races this year”.
Hamilton couldn’t even get close to the target lap times once in clear air.
Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff was enraged.
Of course this is only one race, and it is worth noting that Vettel should have won here previous year but for a dodgy strategy call.
Lewis Hamilton lost out to Sebastian Vettel in Melbourne after higher tyre wear early in the race prompted him to pit first and gave his Ferrari rival the chance to leapfrog him at the stops. “I struggled quite a lot with ultrasoft, felt I was sliding around, missing front grip and rear grip, especially after ten laps – that wasn’t easy”. “Seb was always able to answer in terms of lap time”.
The German driver is understood to be considering his options with a contract that expires at the end of the season and his decision will rest on the pace of the Ferrari vehicle. I came in and got stuck in some traffic but that’s motor racing.
“Tomorrow we can do something in the race”. Lap after lap Alonso used his class to keep his underpowered vehicle ahead, until suspension failure enabled his rivals to mug him on the 52 lap.
The rules shake-up, it was also hoped, would break Mercedes’ three-year stranglehold on the sport.
“Of course I am over the moon, after such a hard winter”.
The Finn acknowledged that the result fell short of his expectations, but said he was content to have made a solid start – having failed to finish the season-opener for the previous two years. “I was really trying to keep the pressure on to make sure that they get that message that we are here and we’re here to fight”.
The new rules didn’t have a positive spin for all the previous champions in the field.
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“You can push them much harder”. “Usually the first couple of laps you were pushing a year ago and then the tyres were dropping off”.
