Sebastian Vettel stormed to victory at the Australian Grand Prix to claim Ferrari’s first since 2015 as the German’s strategy allowed him to jump pole sitter Lewis Hamilton during the only round of stops.
Vettel dominated the second half of the race, pulling clear of the pack once he got into clear air to eventually finish ten seconds clear of Hamilton as Mercedes simply had no answer for the SF70-H’s superior pace.
Valtteri Bottas finished third on his debut for Mercedes. The Finnish driver impressed and closed down on team-mate Hamilton during the closing laps to finish just over one second adrift.
The second Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen was fourth ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The drama started before the race as local favourite Daniel Ricciardo suffered reliability trouble on his lap to the grid. His gearbox getting stuck in sixth, forcing him to walk back to his garage. Red Bull managed to get him going eventually, but it was too late and he was already two laps down.
Ricciardo later retired from the race on lap 29 of 57 with what team boss Christian Horner suspected was an engine failure.
Gallery: Check out the best photos from the Australian Grand Prix
Hamilton got a great start to lead into Turn 1 as the pack of 18 cars behind him fed through without contact. That didn’t last as at Turn 3 Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson tangled, though both managed to get going again – Magnussen retired later in the race with suspension damage.
Haas’ team-mate Romain Grosjean also retired from the race whilst running seventh.
The decisive moment came when Mercedes chose to pit Hamilton on Lap 18, five earlier than Vettel which, with the aid of some traffic, in the form of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, allowed the German to open up a gap and rejoin in the lead after his stop.
Vettel would romp clear as Hamilton had no answer for the pace of the Ferrari and spent the remainder of the race trying to keep Bottas at bay, with Kimi Raikkonen taking fourth, never in contention up front, ahead of Verstappen.
Felipe Massa finished sixth ahead of Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz, with Daniil Kvyat ninth. Esteban Ocon claimed the final point for Force India after an intense three-way fight with Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso.
Alonso retired shortly after that battle, elevating debutant Antonio Giovinazzi into 12th place.
