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Lewis Hamilton has started his title defence in the perfect way by taking out the Australian Grand Prix.
In a drama filled race at the start, Lewis Hamilton beat home his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, to record the first win of the new season.
It was a dominant display from the Silver Arrows who led from start to finish to beat the rest of the field by over 34 seconds.
Sebastian Vettel, who debuted for Ferrari, rounded out the podium in his Prancing Horse.
Australia’s Dan Ricciardo, who struggled all weekend, finished his home Grand Prix in 6th to take away a nice points haul for the weekend.
In a race of attrition, just 11 cars would finish the race, and only 15 would start it on Sunday afternoon.
After Manor Racing did not qualify yesterday, despite being in Australia, they reduced the field from 20 to 18 when they were ruled out of the race by the FIA.
This became 17 an hour before the race when Valtteri Bottas was withdrawn from the Grand Prix with a back injury.
It became 15 on the constellation lap when McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat experienced engine problems.
Magnussen, who had smoke billowing from his car, was eliminated before turn 4 with Kvyat experiencing software problems which forced his car to stop before turn 15.
This created the lowest ever grid to start an Australian Grand Prix in the 31 year history of the event.
When the race actually started there would be more drama at turn 1.
Pastor Maldonado would be spun around by Felipe Nasr in his Sauber after he had contact from Kimi Raikkonen out of turn 1.
This would end the Lotus drivers day.
His team-mate, Romain Grosjean, would only last 15 more corners before pitting and putting the car in the garage with an engine problem as well.
At the end of lap 1, under safety car, there were just 13 cars in the race.
When the race got re-started, Hamilton and Rosberg cleared the field, as others fought for position.
Nasr, who got a blinding start, would move to 5th with Ricciardo and Raikkonen behind him.
In front of them Massa was holding off Vettel for 3rd spot.
This would stay like that until Raikkonen pitted first on lap 17 and went on a two stop strategy.
The move allowed Raikkonen to leap frog Nasr and Ricciardo when they did their pit stop on lap 24 and 26 respectively.
In the battle for third and fourth, Vettel would overtake Massa in the pits, by undercutting the Williams driver by pitting first.
As this was the only stop for a majority of the drivers, Vettel was able to build a gap and keep Massa behind him.
By the time Raikkonen did his second pit stop, on lap 41, he had enough of a gap to come back out in front of Nasr and Ricciardo.
Unfortunately for him his race would be over after the pit stop.
Ferrari had a problem putting the left rear tyre on his car. Instead of holding him up, to put it on properly, they let him go with a tyre not put on the right way.
This forced Ferrari to stop him from continuing to drive and he was forced out of the race before the tyre separated from the car.
If that happened then the team would be punished with a big fine and a potential suspension.
This promoted Nasr to fifth and Ricciardo to sixth which would be the same positions they would finish the race in.
For Nasr, on his debut, he drove brilliantly and showed the Sauber has pace this season.
It was the first top 5 finish for the team since Korea in 2013.
For Dan Ricciardo it was a day of accumulation as he struggled to find pace in the car.
He couldn’t catch the Ferrari powered cars and described the race as boring.
The Australian would also apologise to fans after the race for not putting on a show.
For Mercedes, they didn’t care, as they dominated the race at the front.
Rosberg was able to keep the margin close but he couldn’t find a way past Hamilton for the win.
Mercedes in 2015 will be a hard team to beat with the form they showed today.
Hamilton now takes the championship lead heading into Malaysia in two weeks time.
That race will be on March 29.
Can anyone stop Mercedes winning the Australian F1 Grand Prix this afternoon after dominating the weekend so far? Find out as we live blog the Australian Grand Prix, and the final races of the V8 Supercars and the Carrera Cup, from 12:00pm AEDT.
Yesterday was all about Mercedes as they dominated qualifying to secure 1st and 2nd for the race.
Lewis Hamilton – who will start from pole – was almost six tenths quicker than his team-mate, and more than 1.3 seconds quicker than the rest of the field.
Any signs of Hamilton not wanting a third championship title were quickly put to rest as he blitzed the field.
For Rosberg, who was a lot slower than his team-mate, he will be looking to bounce back and fight hard with his Mercedes rival for the win.
Just who will win out of these two will be interesting. Rosberg, who won here last year, showed good race pace all season while Hamilton will be looking for revenge after a DNF on lap 1 last year in the opening race of the season in Australia.
Rosberg is quicker than what he showed today and is close to Hamilton’s speed.
If they don’t have a mechanical failure then they will be battling hard for victory. I predict Hamilton to be too strong if everything goes to plan for the team.
Behind them it is shaping up to be a cracking battle for the final podium positon between Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull.
Williams won the battle yesterday with Felipe Massa third after qualifying. Ferrari, who took 4th and 5th, were right behind him though and look to give Williams a good battle for the final spot on the podium.
It could be more if Mercedes run into problems.
For Sebastian Vettel, and Kimi Raikkonen, they will be buoyed by the pace of the Ferrari.
They have been quick all weekend and look to be better than the rest.
I expect them to win the battle overall and secure podiums this weekend.
For Williams, they could be without Vallteri Bottas – who qualified 6th – after he complained about a back problem during qualifying.
A decision on him will be made in the morning.
Australia’s Dan Ricciardo is also potentially in this battle, but his car needs to be good today.
He has encountered problem after problem in his Red Bull but still finished 7th in qualifying after all those setbacks.
For Ricciardo his driving talent is up there with the best in the paddock. If Red Bull finds more speed last night, into today, and a few things happen, the Australian can get a result.
If the car fails though, forget about the Australian being a contender.
Renault will be put under pressure even more if Ricciardo has a poor result in front of his home fans.
They have already attracted criticism after the team was forced to change an engine on Friday.
For the rest of the field, it will all be about finishing the race, and getting into the points.
Toro Rosso, with youngsters Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen, will be impressed by their drivers this weekend.
Sainz qualified 8th, and Verstappen was 12th, on debut for the development team of Red Bull.
If both drivers finish in the points today that would be an outstanding achievement.
For McLaren, who will start dead last, they will be just hoping to finish. They have struggled all weekend for pace and look to be making up the numbers.
Their only hope is a high attrition rate for the race.
At the Australian Grand Prix that has been delivered in the last few years. Including disqualifications, non-classified entries, and retirements, the average non-finishers in each Albert Park race is 9.
In 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2008 there were 14 non-finishers.
I expect a similar number to the average today after a weekend full of glitches, problems, and mistakes from drivers.
It promises to be an exciting race if that happens.
The F1 race will be complimented with the final V8 Supercar and Carrera Cup race for the weekend.
After winning his third straight race yesterday, Mark Winterbottom will be looking for a clean sweep, with a fourth race win today.
If he does that he will become just the third driver to do that in a V8 Supercar around Albert Park.
In the Carrera Cup, Steven Richards will be looking to win the final race, and extend his lead in the championship.
The Roar will live blog both races and the F1 race in what is shaping up to be a big day of racing.
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