Categories: FeatureFeatures

Australian Grand Prix review

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The new F1 season is finally underway, with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne receiving plenty of attention for matters off-track. Aside from developments in the Supreme Court of Victoria and spats between teams and drivers about the state of the sport, F1i looks back at how the race weekend unfolded and opens itself up to future ridicule by checking just how accurate its podium prediction was…

The race in 100 words

Lewis Hamilton headed a dominant Mercedes one-two in scenes reminiscent of so many races from last season. Having led in to Turn 1, the only time Hamilton wasn't running in first place was when he pitted a lap before team-mate Nico Rosberg, but the two were rarely on camera such was their advantage. Pastor Maldonado crashed on the opening lap to bring out the safety car, while Felipe Nasr delivered a hugely impressive debut performance to finish fifth behind Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa in a race which saw just 15 starters. Oh, and McLaren completed the race!

Driver of the weekend

While Hamilton “drove like a world champion” according to Rosberg, it’s hard to look beyond Nasr for the standout performance. Having missed FP1 as Sauber was unable to run its cars due to off-track legal action, Nasr was quickly up to speed in FP2 and then delivered under pressure to take the car in to Q3.

Nasr was then calm and clinical in the race, making a strong start to climb to P6 on the opening lap and dispatching Carlos Sainz Jr immediately after the restart to move in to fifth place. Pressure from Daniel Ricciardo was easily repelled and Nasr secured the best debut result for a Brazilian driver with a faultless drive.

Move of the race

It didn’t result in a completed overtake, but Jenson Button and Sergio Perez went wheel-to-wheel on lap 12 in a rare highlight. Perez was attempting to pass the slower McLaren in to the high-speed Turn 9, but Button fought back around the outside to hold the inside line in to Turn 10. A quality piece of driving, albeit in a fight for last place.

Prediction accuracy

Podium: 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Nico Rosberg, 3. Sebastian Vettel

F1i’s pre-race prediction: 1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Nico Rosberg, 3. Valtteri Bottas

Weekend recap

Friday

Mercedes 0.7s clear of Ferrari

Gallery

Saturday

Hamilton storms to pole as Mercedes dominates

Gallery

Sunday

Hamilton holds off Rosberg to win Australian Grand Prix

Gallery

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.