Posted on 20th March 2016
At the Australian GP in Melbourne yesterday, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg claimed his first win of the 2016 season and the fifteenth win of his career ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
Before the start of the race, Daniil Kvyat was stranded in the middle of the home straight and this left the FIA no choice but to have an aborted start and do another formation lap as Kvyat tries to get his car back to start the race in the pit-lane
Sebastian Vettel had a blistering start off the line and as we headed into the first corner, he was ahead of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Felipe Massa is then able to pass Hamilton into Turn 2 for track position. Pascal Wehrlein has also had a great start and moved up a couple of places as Kevin Magnussen over team radio announces that he has a puncture.
Also, Fernando Alonso was up to tenth place after the first lap and also Nico Hulkenberg was able to pass Daniel Ricciardo for eighth place. But Vettel lead the race on Lap 2 by 1.5 seconds ahead of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen as as Daniil Kvyat officially retires from the race.
In the first opening laps of the race, there was a battle for fifteenth place between Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Nasr and Valtteri Bottas alongside the battle for fifth between Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz Jr. The next lap saw Hamilton getting a good tow from Massa’s Williams but managed to get past at Turn 3 and is now fifth place.
There was a battle for second place between Raikkonen and Rosberg which was building up; with Rosberg closing the gap to 0.5 seconds to Raikkonen as Hamilton is closing the gap to Verstappen for fourth place. On Lap 10, Daniel Ricciardo is able to pass Massa for sixth place with a good move into Turn 1.
Two laps later sees Valtteri Bottas passing Renault rookie Jolyon Palmer for eleventh place with a great move into Turn 4 after Palmer defended well before conceding.
With Vettel making his pitstop at the end of Lap 12, Kimi Raikkonen now leads the Australian GP ahead of Hamilton by 11.7 seconds. After the pitstops, we saw Vettel battling with Rosberg for third place; with Rosberg catching him all the time. Lap 15 saw Ricciardo passing Button for seventh place and Verstappen passing Button for eighth place.
At this stage of the race, the Toro Rosso drivers are flying; especially Carlos Sainz Jr who on Lap 15 passed Jenson Button with a great move to ninth place. Lap 16 saw Vettel passing Hamilton with a great move into Turns 1 and 2 to move up to second place as Hamilton struggles with his tyres.
At the end of Lap 16, both Raikkonen and Hamilton pit, therefore handing the race lead to his team mate Vettel. The turning point of the race on Lap 17 saw Esteban Gutierrez into the gravel after collusion with Fernando Alonso who saw his McLaren-Honda hit the barrier and is completely turned upside down.
The accident happened as Alonso moved to pass Gutierrez on the outside at Turn 3. He appeared to be caught out by the braking point of the Haas, which was on 17-lap old tyres compared to Alonso’s new rubber, and clouted Gutierrez right front tyre to left rear tyre. Alonso flipped into the air as he made contact with the gravel and flew at speed into the barriers.
The McLaren ended up resting upside down against the barrier, but Alonso was able to get out without assistance and walk away from the wreckage even though both drivers retired from the race. This then brought out the Safety Car and the teams pitting under it. The red flag was the brought out by the FIA in order to deal with the debris that was on the track as the stewards announced that an investigation would be happening after the race.
The red flag saw a 20-minute stoppage to the race before racing resumed with a rolling restart on Lap 19 with Vettel leading the pack. But on Lap 23 as Raikkonen reports on team radio that something wasn't right with his Ferrari, a fire breaks out in his airbox and is forced to officially retire from the race.
There were battles up and down the field with Palmer and Button battling for twelfth place, Hulkenberg and Bottas for ninth place, Verstappen, Sainz and Hamilton battling for fourth place and Romain Grosjean, Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas battling for eighth place.
Three laps later sees Vettel still leading the race by 3.9 seconds ahead of Rosberg. The stewards then announce that Marcus Ericsson will receive a drive through penalty after the Sauber team was found working on the car at the 15 second signal.
In the second half of the race, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Bottas were still battling for eighth place and it was fight that had fans hooked watching with Grosjean solidly defending his position on the track. With the battle at the front with Rosberg catching Vettel starting to generate some attention, Sainz Jr struggled with the performance of his tyres and appears to be dropping back slightly from the race even though he was battling with Sergio Perez for tenth place and is able to get past.
The race for the lead between Vettel and Rosberg is building up on the track; with Rosberg slowly starting to catch the Ferrari in front of him. But with Vettel pitting at the end of Lap 35, he now hands the lead over to Rosberg who had to push if he wanted to stay ahead after his pitstop; even of a wheelnut on Vettel's left front tyre wouldn't play ball which means that Rosberg after his pitstop gained the lead of the race ahead of his team mate Hamilton.
There was a battle for ninth between Palmer, Sainz and Verstappen with Palmer doing a super job keeping the Toro Rosso drivers at bay. By Lap 42, Hamilton was catching Ricciardo for second place on the track as Marcus Ericsson officially retires from the race. As into Turn 1, Sainz is able to pass Palmer for position with a good move and is quickly followed by his team mate.
In the latter stages of the race, there was a battle between Grosjean and Hulkenberg for sixth place, as Massa and Ricciardo battle for fourth place and Ricciardo is able to pass the Brazilian driver on Lap 46 heading into Turn 1. Rosberg still leads the race at this point from Hamilton by 10.4 seconds as Vettel is slowly starting to catch the British driver.
With Verstappen clearly annoyed at being behind his team team Sainz and clearly airing his emotion publically via team radio, both the Toro Rosso drivers still find themselves trying to pass the Williams of Bottas on Lap 48 of the race. By Lap 52, Vettel had brought the gap down to 0.5 seconds to Hamilton and is gathering momentum.
As many were watching the battle between Hamilton and Vettel, Verstappen span his Toro Rosso in the second to last corner on Lap 53 after Sainz locked up and Verstappen trying to pass his team mate and makes contact with him as a result, which made him lose a place to Palmer.
But it was Nico Rosberg who took victory in Melbourne and extended his tally of consecutive F1 wins from three to four. He finished ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton in second place who was 0.360 seconds behind him and ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third place who was 0.838 seconds behind Rosberg.
Daniel Ricciardo finished in fourth place ahead of Felipe Massa in fifth place and ahead of Romain Grosjean in sixth place who managed to get Haas' first points in Formula One after a brilliant drive and is the first team to do so on their debut since the Toyota team in 2002.
Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in seventh place ahead of Valtteri Bottas in eighth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in ninth place and Max Verstappen who rounded off the top ten finishers.
Jolyon Palmer ended his debut race in F1 in eleventh place ahead of Kevin Magnussen in twelfth place, Sergio Perez in thirteenth place, Jenson Button in fourteenth place and Felipe Nasr in fifteenth place and Manor rookie Pascal Wehrlein in sixteenth place.
Marcus Ericsson, Kimi Raikkonen, Rio Haryanto, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Gutierrez did not finish the race. Daniil Kvyat did not start the race.
The classification for the Australian GP is as follows:-
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.48:15.565
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 8.068s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 9.643s
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 24.330s
5. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 58.979s
6. Romain Grosjean, Haas Ferrari, 1.12.081s
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.14.499s
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.15.453s
9. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.15.680s
10. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.16.833s
11. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1.23.399s
12. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1.25.606s
13. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 1.31.399s
14. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1 lap
15. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1 lap
16. Pascal Wehrlein, MRT Racing, 1 lap
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, Not Classified
18. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, Not Classified
19. Rio Haryanto, MRT Racing, Not Classified
20. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, Not Classified
21. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas Ferrari, Not Classified
22. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, Not Classified
Nico Rosberg leads the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, Hamilton is second with 18 points, Vettel is third with 15 points, Ricciardo is fourth with 12 points, Massa is fifth with 10 points, Grosjean is sixth with 8 points, Hulkenberg is seventh with 6 points, Bottas is eighth with 4 points, Sainz is ninth with 2 points and Verstappen is tenth with 1 point.
Mercedes lead the Constructors Championship with 43 points, Ferrari is second with 15 points, Williams are third with 14 points, Red Bull are fourth with 12 points, Haas are fifth with 8 points, Force India are sixth with 6 points, Toro Rosso are seventh with 2 points and Renault are eighth with 0 points.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
