Australian Grand Prix: Rosberg strikes first as Ferrari fumble

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg won the Formula 1 season opening Australian Grand Prix after a red flag stoppage, caused by a vicious collision between McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez, ultimately played in favour of the German.

Pole winner Lewis Hamilton finished second, recovering from a poor start which saw him drop down the order forcing him to chase all afternoon, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finishing third despite leading early on in the race.

Both Rosberg and Hamilton were slow off the line, the world champion slowing visibly in the second phase of his getaway from pole position on the Albert Park grid.

Vettel, on the other hand, launched well and as he exited Turn 1 (right-left complex) was in command with Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen tucked into second place as Rosberg emerged third from the first turn melee, with Hamilton down in sixth and behind the Williams of Felipe Massa and Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso.

At the front Vettel was in control until, on lap 17, Alonso’s McLaren rammed into the back of Gutierrez’s Haas, causing the Spanish driver's car to flip over twice at high speed, before ending upside down in a crumpled wreck against the tyre barriers.

Alonso was out quickly, limping away initially but in the end both drivers walked away unscathed. The incident triggered a red flag which saw the rest of the field line up at the pitlane exit while the wrecked cars were removed and the tracked cleared of substantial debris.

"It was a scary moment. I feel lucky to be here. It's because of our safety standards that I am still alive," said the Spaniard.

The stoppage which lasted 22 minutes proved to be the turning point of the race as tyre choices were made by teams and drivers that impacted how the race panned out thereafter.

Surprisingly Ferrari bolted on another set of red band supersofts to both the cars of Vettel, the leader, and Raikkonen in third, while Mercedes with Rosberg second and Hamilton down in seventh opted for a set of white band medium tyres on both the silver cars - the same ones they had used almost exclusively, and to great effect, throughout preseason testing.

It was clear that at that point Ferrari believed they had enough pace on the supersofts to get away from the chasing Mercedes duo to make an extra pitstop later in the race - they were wrong and what was a potential win thus turned into third pace for the Vettel.

Raikkonen's charge ended shortly after the restart as he parked his Ferrari in the pitlane, got out of the car nonchalantly as it belched flames from the airbox.

When Vettel pitted in for new yellow band soft tyres, Rosberg - who was in his slipstream, took the lead where he stayed to the end of the race. The gap between him and second place remained around ten seconds to the end of the race.

Rosberg said after his victory, "It's been a great weekend. Thank you to the team they've done an incredible job. We loved it and I'm super excited. It's early days but it's the perfect start. We have to keep an eye on the red guys."

Hamilton finished second, fending off Vettel in the final stages and turning what could have been a big disappointment into second place. Also refreshing to see the body language between the two Silver Arrows driver after the race. Things appear cool, at least for now...

Hamilton reflected,"It was a great race. I loved the fact we had to come from far behind. I'm glad no-one was injured in the shunt and after that it was about trying to get up the field and it's impossible to follow out there. I've had much worse in the first race and I'll take it as a real bonus to come back from seventh."

Vettel gave it his best shot in his final stint, but it was a case of a bridge too far and what Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene termed an "aggressive strategy" may well have cost the reds a victory.

Vettel said afterwards, "I went for it so obviously the start was mega. I was very happy. It reminded me of Hungary last year. We settled into a rhythm nicely. You can argue the red flag didn't help us. We tried to go more aggressive, maybe it didn't work but ultimately I'm very happy with third."

Daniel Ricciardo had the home crowd on their feet on a number of occasions as he stalked the top three, ending fourth for Red Bull ahead of fifth placed Felipe Massa in the Williams.

Ricciardo said, "Fourth is great but I'm probably more happy with the pace we had. We finished a fair step ahead of Williams and our competitors."

Big story for the sport was Romain Grosjean finishing sixth and scoring points for the all new Haas F1 team in their debut.

The Frenchman delightfully declaring on his cool down lap, "This is a win for us! A win for us! Unbelievable... I don't even know where we finished."

Grosjean added later, "It feels like standing on the top step of the podium. From day one I told these guys the car has huge potential. We have plenty of areas where we can improve but the result is a massive boost for everyone."

Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh in the Force India, ahead of Williams driver Valtteri Bottas in eighth.

A big highlight of the race was the battle between Toro Rosso duo Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen. The pair slugged it out for the final points, young Verstappen letting his feelings be known after the team messed up his pitstop.

At one point the eighteen year old Dutchman yelled into the team radio: "I wanted to pit first for f*ck sake!"

At the same time Sainz stubbornly defended his teammates relentless attacks. In the end sainz was ninth and Verstappen took home the final point - this is one to watch all year long!

In the end an entertaining grand prix, however the script remains similar to last year: Mercedes ahead with Ferrari chasing hard. How close are Ferrari? Hard to tell, but Bahrain will surely reveal more.

[poll id="49"]

Fastest lap - Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:28.997s (lap 49)

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