Ferrari celebrate 1st and 3rd at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix
Sebastian Vettel has won the opening round of the 2018 F1 season in Australia for Ferrari, pushing pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton in to second place. Kimi Raikkonen in third for Ferrari.
Despite Hamilton controlling the first half of the race, it was Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari who managed to exploit a safety car period after Grosjean stopped on track and get the jump on Hamilton’s Mercedes.
Hamilton had already made his stop before the safety car, but Vettel’s stop under the safety car saw him come out ahead of Hamilton, and Vettel managed to fight off Hamilton for much of the rest of the race – although in the closing laps Hamilton slowed and had to concentrate on keeping his second place – with Ferrari managing third place too for Raikkonen.
Vettel was handed his chance for a win thanks to Grosjean’s Hass stopping after mechanics sent both Haas cars out with loose wheel nuts, lucky that Ferrari had decided to run him long after both Hamilton and Raikkonen – running one and two – had made their stops. It was a stroke of luck for Vettel, but it handed him the opening win of the year.
Behind the top three, it was Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull in fourth – beating team mate Max Verstappen, who finished sixth after a spin on lap 10 – and Fernando Alonso in the McLaren in fifth after also benefiting from the safety car after going long.
Between Alonso in fifth and team mate Vandoorne in ninth, it was Hulkenberg in the Renault in seventh and Bottas in the second Mercedes in eighth, with Carlo Sainz taking the last points place for Renault.
Does all this mean Ferrari have Mercedes number, and that McLaren are back as real contenders with their new Renault engine? Probably not. Take out the safety car and it would have been an easy Merceds win, with Ferrari just behind and Red Bull following.
Which sounds very familiar.
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