Sebastian Vettel won the first round of what could be a long and lively Formula One title fight with Lewis Hamilton on Sunday but the Ferrari driver may be the one with more to worry about as they leave Australia.
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Hamilton warned the Finn pre-season that he will be expected to play a big part in helping defend the title but his low grid position left the Brit exposed to Ferrari pair Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
The Briton had been in chirpy mood earlier in the week and took pole in qualifying, but crucially lost the lead when Vettel pitted under the virtual safety vehicle [VSC] on Sunday.
Hamilton was on course to open his campaign with the maximum quota of points at Melbourne’s Albert Park only to see rival Sebastian Vettel snatch victory following a miscalculation by Mercedes.
“It is obviously never easy to lose a grand prix and we still got second, but it feels like a dark cloud”.
The Australian will face a three-place grid penalty on race day for driving too fast when a red flag was shown during the second practice session. I think previous year we had more pace in relative terms.
Hamilton and Mercedes continue to search for answers as Vettel dictates the pace under Safety Car conditions.
Barring their racing pedigree, the pair share little in common, with Hamilton’s high-profile social life at odds with Vettel’s fierce protection of his privacy. New-look F1, same old problems…
Kimi Raikkonen held off home favourite Daniel Ricciardo to secure the final podium position, while Fernando Alonso crossed the line an encouraging fifth for McLaren.
Pole-sitter Hamilton had appeared set to coast to victory with a clear pace advantage, but the race turned on its head with the safety vehicle, which was called after Romain Grosjean’s Haas failed and rolled to a stop at turn two.
“It could be an unlucky situation that Sebastian was just making it into the pits and was accelerating behind safety auto line one and two”.
Hamilton started the practise circuits well on Friday, beating out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (tipped to be his closest challenger this year) by 0.127 seconds in the second round.
The Ferrari driver was pragmatic on Saturday after he had been nearly 0.7 seconds off the pace of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes-GP in qualifying in Melbourne. He fell behind Magnussen at the start, then spun trying to pass the Haas. It also hides the driver’s helmet, making it harder to know which driver is which. There were so many good things we could have done.
“It’s fine as long as we joke with each other and I don’t think. apart from a point a year ago, we don’t have a problem with each other”, he continued.
While that is some way from the team’s race-winning glory days, it is a confidence-boosting result for the season ahead. Gasly retired with a power unit failure, the first after a trouble-free testing with new partners Honda. Because of an errant pump on his drinks bottle.
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Hamilton approached his final run brilliantly, going four tenths of a second up through the first sector. “I was feeling it in the corners”.
