Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari won the opening race of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship despite a clear pace disadvantage to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes AMG F1 after a virtual safety car period and what Mercedes allege to be a software glitch allowed Vettel to use strategy to leapfrog Hamilton.
A virtual safety car period on lap 26 out of the 58-lap race due to the retirement of Haas-Ferrari's Romain Grosejan slowed down Hamilton's progress enough to allow Vettel to pit for tyres and come ahead of the defending world champion. Ferrari had tried to keep Vettel out on track for as long as possible in order to get as close to Hamilton as possible but the win came as an unlikely bonus, given the pace advantage Mercedes had in qualifying where the Ferrari was almost 0.7 seconds slower over a single lap.
Hamilton had taken pole position yesterday with a stunning lap of 1min.21.164sec. around the 5.303km Melbourne Grand Prix circuit. Which translates into an incredible average speed of 235.166km/h.
A full safety car period followed on lap 28 before the race got underway again on lap 32. With the circuit being notoriously difficult to overtake on and the cars generating a lot more 'dirty air' since last season, Hamilton was able to come close to under a second behind Vettel but unable to get past the German who scored his 48th career win.
Mercedes alleged that a software glitch indicated that they had more of a margin over Vettel than indicated when the German took his pit stop.
The result would likely have been a lot different had the Haas-Ferraris of Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen (who qualified fifth yesterday) finished the race. Instead not only did it give Vettel and Ferrari their golden opportunity but also allowed Fernando Alonso to take a fifth-place finish ahead of the more fancied Red Bull-Tag Heuer (Renault) and Renault F1 cars of Max Verstappen and Nico Hulkenberg.
The Haas induced safety car period also led to Vettel's teammate Kimi Raikkonen finishing third instead of second, which would have been behind Hamilton. However, a win and a third pace for Ferrari means a big early season advantage in the constructors' championship race for the Italian team over Mercedes. Ferrari come away from the first round with 40 points while Mercedes come away with 26 points, thanks to Hamilton's second place and teammate Valtteri Bottas' eighth place that allow the team to have further eight points. Bottas had started in 15th place after crashing out in the final of three segments of qualifying yesterday before even setting a time.
The top four drivers were separated by just seven seconds at the end of the race with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo in fourth place.
A further 20 seconds behind was McLaren-Renault's Fernando Alonso in fifth place, finishing just 0.059 seconds ahead of Verstappen who was recovering from a spin earlier in the race.
Just seven seconds covered Alonso, Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Bottas and the second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne in ninth place. This was the result of Alonso holding up much faster cars behind him, something he did famously in the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix for the final 13 laps when Michael Schumacher was hunting him down.
A further 11 seconds behind Vandoorne and completing the top ten was the second Renault F1 of Carlos Sainz.
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