Valtteri Bottas breaks his drought at Australian Grand Prix

Mercedes AMG started off the 2019 Formula One season in dominant fashion, as Valtteri Bottas broke his drought of victories going back to 2017 by winning the Australian Grand Prix.

A lightening start saw Bottas take the lead going into the first corner from his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who started from pole position.

From there the Finn controlled the race without trouble and was setting fastest lap after fastest lap – to also claim an extra point for that feat.

Early pit-stops for Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel saw them fall away in the latter part of the race, especially Vettel who was left asking his team “why are we so slow?”

The German crossed the line in fourth, just holding off his new teammate Charles Leclerc, who himself had a real scrappy race.

Third went to Max Verstappen, who chased Hamilton hard going into the final part of the race and ultimately missed out on second by 1.6 seconds.

Nevertheless, the podium would be a delightful result for the start of the new engine partnership between Red Bull and Honda – with the Japanese manufacturer returning to the rostrum for the first time since their return to the sport in 2015.

Aussie hearts were broken on the first lap of the race, with Daniel Ricciardo ending up on the grass on the start/finish straight and collecting his own front-wing.

He pitted for repairs, though ultimately the team decided to retire the car later in the race – leaving the home crowd a little hollow in Ricciardo’s first race for Renault.

Nico Hulkenberg in the meantime was able to hold off Kimi Räikkönen in the Alfa Romeo, to claim seventh for Renault and a bag of points.

Not too far behind was Lance Stroll in eighth scoring on debut for Racing Point and then Daniil Kvyat, who sensationally held Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly at bay and denied the Frenchman a point.

Mixed fortunes for Haas, who again had pit-stop troubles for Romain Grosjean and ultimately a suspension fault which ended the Frenchman’s race prematurely.

Kevin Magnussen in the meantime finished a lonely sixth, to open the account for the American team.

McLaren too had a mixed day, with Carlos Sainz the first retiree of the race with a suspected engine failure early in the race.

Lando Norris who started from eighth, finished in twelfth and outside of the points – however did impress during his battle for position with Alfa Romeo rookie Antonio Giovinazzi.