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Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel wins season-opening 2017 Australian Grand Prix

Writer's picture: Andrew ZarbAndrew Zarb


The Formula 1 season got underway and it was Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel who won the race after overtaking Lewis Hamilton in the pit-stops.

Before the race began, however, Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull car stopped on the track on the lap to the grid. He made it back to the pits though, and started the race after lap 2, thus he was 2 laps down on the runners already.

After the drivers lined up on the grid for the start following the formation lap, the start had to be aborted for a rather mysterious reason (apparently it was because a driver lined up in Daniel Ricciardo's grid slot), and the race was therefore shortened by 1 lap.

When the race got underway after the second formation lap, Hamilton got away well and held his lead going into turn 1. Vettel initially seemed to be slow off the line, and Valtteri Bottas closed up to him, however, Vettel held second place with Bottas just behind. At turn 3, Marcus Ericsson of Sauber and Kevin Magnussen of Haas collided, but both continued. Magnussen however suffered a puncture and had to pit for new tyres. No further action was warranted for that crash.

On lap 10 Stoffel Vandoorne pitted and reset the engine after he was complaining of a loss in power. Haas driver Romain Grosjean's engine failed on lap 13, when he was running in 6th place.

By the time Hamilton pitted on lap 17, the gap was around 1.3 seconds. He switched from ultrasofts to soft tyres. Also, on lap 19 Jolyon Palmer retired from the race. Vettel stayed out longer, hoping for the overcut to work. Hamilton was initially on target to overtake Vettel again for the lead. However, he then encountered Red Bull's Max Verstappen in fourth place and began to lose time to Sebastian Vettel. The team told Hamilton "This is race critical, we need to get past Verstappen. Hamilton's reply however was:

"I don't know how you expect me to do that."

Hamilton just couldn't get past Verstappen whatsoever. Vettel eventually pitted on lap 24, and switched onto the soft tyres. Crucially for him, the overcut worked, as he re-emerged ahead of Hamilton.

On lap 26 Marcus Ericsson of the Sauber stopped on the side of the track with a technical issue, which prompted a yellow flag. Then also on lap 29, "the honey badger" and local fans' favourite Daniel Ricciardo stopped with a reported loss of power. We also missed the chance to see Daniel Ricciardo do a "shoey" in his home race.

Fernando Alonso was running in 10th place for McLaren, and was holding his own against Force India driver Esteban Ocon. Force India team-mate Sergio Perez was in 8th place, after he managed to overtake Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz. Sainz's teammate Kvyat was running in 6th, although he hadn't pitted yet. Felipe Massa of Williams was in 7th place. Daniil Kvyat eventually removed his set of ultrasoft tyres on lap 35, and emerged in 9th place behind team-mate Carlos Sainz.

On lap 40, Williams' rookie, 18-year old driver Lance Stroll retired, seemingly due to a brake issue. On lap 46 the other Haas driver Kevin Magnussen retired from the race as well, with a technical issue on the car.

Fernando Alonso was still running in 10th place. However, on lap 52, he seemed and got passed by both Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg of Renault. He then duly retired on lap 53. Also, Daniil Kvyat pitted again and dropped back down to 9th, after Sainz had previously let him through for 8th place.

Meanwhile, at the front, there was no catching Sebastian Vettel, and he won with a gap of 9.9s over Hamilton, making it Vettel's first race win since Singapore in 2015. Hamilton's team-mate Bottas finished in 3rd place, whilst Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen finished 4th and 5th respectively. To complete the points, Massa, Perez, Sainz, Kvyat and Ocon finished 6th to 10th in the respective order. Antonio Giovinazzi had an impressive race for Sauber, finishing in 12th place, which is remarkable when you consider that he stepped in so late on for Pascal Wehrlein. Nico Hulkenberg finished 11th for Renault, while Stoffel Vandoorne finished 13th for McLaren.

World Championship standings:

Sebastian Vettel - 25 points

Lewis Hamilton - 18 points

Valtteri Bottas - 15 points

Kimi Raikkonen - 12 points

Max Verstappen - 10 points

Felipe Massa - 8 points

Sergio Perez - 6 points

Carlos Sainz - 4 points

Daniil Kvyat - 2 points

Esteban Ocon - 1 point

Nico Hulkenberg - 0 points

Antonio Giovinazzi - 0 points

Stoffel Vandoorne - 0 points

Drivers who did not finish and are therefore not classified: Fernando Alonso, Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo, Jolyon Palmer and Romain Grosjean

Constructors' Championship standings:

Ferrari - 37 points

Mercedes - 33 points

Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 10 points

Williams-Mercedes - 8 points

Force India-Mercedes - 7 points

STR-Renault - 6 points

Renault - 0 points

Sauber-Ferrari - 0 points

McLaren-Honda - 0 points

Haas-Ferrari are not classified as neither driver finished the race.


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