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Video: Vettel wins in Australia, Hamilton second
Melbourne - It was Vettel's fourth win for Ferrari and his first since the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2015.
In a race with only 13 cars crossing the finishing line, there might not have been much overtaking, but such is the nature of the circuit. However a critical talking point and point of relief for the sport and its fans was the outcome on the podium, where it was the first time since 2013 that a Mercedes wasn't leading the points table. It is also the first time a Ferrari has won at Albert Park since 2010, which is the reason the crowds created a celebration atmosphere that resonated a familiar scene from the Monza circuit in Italy.
- Formula 1 (@F1) March 26, 2017
With the new cars and their extremely high cornering speeds, most of the drivers seemed cautious at the first turn and corner but there was a melee involving two cars, that of Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen. At the start pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton jumped into lead followed by Sebastian, and Valterri, but an early pit-stop and miscalculated tyre strategy lead by the team, lead to him finishing second. A clear takeaway from the scenario was the return of Mercedes tyre heating woes on softer tyre compounds in warm temperatures. An early pitstop for Lewis meant he did not know how long those tyres were going to last since most of the teams were on a one-stop strategy.
Ferrari's decision to call Sebastian into the pits at the right time, coupled with a flawless overcut strategy to rejoin the grid left Lewis struggling behind Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel. At this point Lewis' team-mate Valterri was in lead for a brief period, till he had to pit for a tyre change. From thereon the front order remained similar, with other battles in the middle-field and several retirements.
Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth behind the two Mercedes, a relief after the retirement he had last year. The Finn did not challenge the top three and was far from it but clocked the fastest lap of the race, that clocked 1 minute 25.538 seconds while pulling away form Max Verstappen on lap 56 of the race. While Max finished in fifth place, he was followed by William's Felipe Massa in sixth.
Red Bull Racing team driver and local lad Daniel Ricciardo's misfortunes carried over from qualifying to the race. The Australian's car stalled on the installation lap due to a suspected sensor or gearbox failure, which made him restart the race from the pit-lane and rejoin the grid on the sec-ond lap. Daniel's run was further compromised due to the same problem on lap 29, where his car jammed in sixth gear and came to a halt, making it his first retirement since Belgium GP in 2015.
Force India's Sergio Perez finished seventh, while his team-mate Esteban Ocon finished tenth rounding up the first double points finish for the pink team. Perez was followed by Toro Rosso driv-ers Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kyvat who finished eighth and ninth respectively. Nico Hulkenberg was the sole Renault driver to finish the race in eleventh place while his team-mate Jolyon Palmer re-tired after 15 laps, due to brake problems that compromised his run.
Ferrari third driver, Antonio Giovinazzi who replaced Pascal Wehrlein for the weekend made a stellar debut with a 12th place finish. The GP2 vice-champion's car was the only Sauber to complete the race, after Marcus Ericsson's car retired due an engine failure. Giovinazzi was followed by McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne in 13th place, which was the sole McLaren to complete the race.
Stoffel's teammate Fernando Alonso was running tenth when a quicker Esteban Ocon overtook the two-time World Champion in an effortless move in a reliable Force India. The Spaniard who was trying to push the limits of the weak McLaren, lost another place later to Hulkenberg when he was seen slowing down and complaining on the radio of a suspected suspension problem.
The other retirements of the race included that of Williams billionaire protege Lance Stroll whose debut year seems to have had a rough start. Following the Canadian were the two Haas cars of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen. The Frenchman from Haas was running in seventh place and retired due to an engine failure, while his teammate's car sustained suspension damage from the clash at the first corner, leading to retirement for the Dane on lap 47 of the race.
With the current result the Constructor's Championship standings see Ferrari leading the charts with a total of 37 points, followed by Mercedes in second place with 33 points, and Red Bull Racing in third place with 10 points. The Drivers' standings have Sebastian leading with a total of 25 points followed by Lewis with a total of 18 and followed by Valterri with a total of 15 points.
The outcome of the race has forecasted the much awaited battle between Lewis and Sebastian, a battle probably both drivers themselves have been looking forward to. Without any anti-climatic race moments like last year, or a cliched race result, the race has has kickstarted the transition season of F1 with an interesting result.
Overall the hype around Ferrari's pre-season testing form has proved to be true with their invincible form on the softer compounds in warm temperatures and the reliability of their car. There were moments in the race where the two Mercedes drivers were pushing their cars and went flat-out on pace, but were not able to catch up with the scarlet car. With early predictions commencing post this weekend, one thing certain is that the Maranello squad have brought their best game and are capable of challenging the Brackley based team. The next race will be the Chinese Grand Prix held at the Shanghai International Circuit with the race events scheduled from April 7-9, 2017.
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