Sebastian Vettel has won the opening race Down Under after managing to get past Lewis Hamilton (as well as Kimi Raikkonen) in the pitstops. Hamilton and Raikkonen did complete the podium after they finished second and third respectively, whilst home boy Daniel Ricciardo finished in fourth spot.
At the start, Hamilton got away well, and led the two Ferraris going into the first corner. However, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen managed to overtake Max Verstappen for fourth place. At the end of lap 1, the order was: Hamilton, Raikkonen, Vettel, Magnussen, Verstappen, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo.
On lap 7, Sergey Sirotkin retired with a brakes issue. A lap later, Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson also retired with a hydraulic problem. On lap 11, going into turn 1, Verstappen, who was still stuck behind Magnussen, spun and lost a couple of places - however he did not crash. Verstappen did admit that his spin was caused by floor damage to the car, saying "Suddenly I had a lot of issues with the car, balance problems, and we found out after four or five laps something broke off the car. All the time in the middle of the corner I was losing a lot of grip and at one point I got caught out at Turn One and spun." At this point, the order (from fourth to eighth) was: Magnussen, Grosjean, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg and Verstappen. Meanwhile, on lap 15, Frenchman Pierre Gasly retired for Toro Rosso with a Honda engine failure.
On lap 19, Kimi Raikkonen was the first of the frontrunners to make his pit stop, with Hamilton following suit a lap later and re-emerging ahead of the Finn. On lap 24, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen pitted, however, disaster followed because as soon as he exitted the pit lane he slowed with an issue - it was said to be that the left rear wheel was not properly attached.
If you thought that was it for drama, a lap later, seemingly the same thing happened to fellow Haas driver Romain Grosjean. This time, however, he stopped on the track (rather than pulling over to the side where there would be a run-off area like Magnussen did), which caused a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) to be deployed. This played into the extremely fortunate hands of Vettel, who had been yet to make his pitstop, and unbelievably he re-emerged ahead of Hamilton to lead the race - as during a VSC period drivers slow down as they have to keep to a pre-set delta pace, though this does not apply for the pitlane. The Safety Car (SC) was deployed not long after, and at this point the order was: Vettel, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Vandoorne, Bottas and Sainz.
The SC entered the pitlane on lap 32, and Vettel got a good restart and led. Bottas did manage to get past Vandoorne for eighth place. Try as hard as he could, Hamilton could not get past Vettel (this was the same for Ricciardo battling Raikkonen, and for Verstappen who was battling Alonso), and as Hamilton got closer, he started to suffer with overheating issues (particularly with the Power Unit), and on lap 47 made an error and lost considerable time to Vettel, highlighting just how tough overtaking around Melbourne is and was today.
In the end, Hamilton backed off, and Vettel rather cruised to victory in the end. Saying that, however, Ferrari have work to do and must improve if they are going to challenge for the title, as Mercedes clearly were quicker. Meanwhile, McLaren's Fernando Alonso finished an impressive fifth, his best since the 2016 United States Grand Prix, and earned himself Driver of the Day award. Meanwhile, the rest of the points scorers were: Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Vandoorne and Sainz.
Classification:
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Renault
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault
Carlos Sainz - Renault
Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
Esteban Ocon - Force India-Mercedes
Charles Leclerc - Sauber-Ferrari
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Brendon Hartley - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Did not finish the race and not classified: Romain Grosjean, Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly, Marcus Ericsson and Sergey Sirotkin
World Championship standings:
Sebastian Vettel - 25 points
Lewis Hamilton - 18 points
Kimi Raikkonen - 15 points
Daniel Ricciardo - 12 points
Fernando Alonso - 10 points
Max Verstappen - 8 points
Nico Hulkenberg - 6 points
Valtteri Bottas - 4 points
Stoffel Vandoorne - 2 points
Carlos Sainz - 1 point
Sergio Perez - 0 points
Esteban Ocon - 0 points
Charles Leclerc - 0 points
Lance Stroll - 0 points
Brendon Hartley - 0 points
Constructors' Championship standings:
Ferrari - 40 points
Mercedes - 22 points
Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer - 20 points
McLaren-Renault - 12 points
Renault - 7 points
Force India-Mercedes - 0 points
Sauber-Ferrari - 0 points
Williams-Mercedes - 0 points
Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda - 0 points