F1 Australian GP: Vettel’s victory, a Mercedes glitch and Haas pit issues

Sebastian Vettel started the new Formula 1 season with victory at the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari driver Vettel took advantage of a mid-race virtual safety-car to overtake world champion Hamilton from the pits and secure the chequered flag in Melbourne.

Teams are allowed a ‘free stop’ during the virtual safety-car – and Ferrari “pounced on the opportunity,” the BBC reports.

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Vettel, who overtook from the pits, has admitted that his victory was the result of good luck. He told Sky Sports: “We got a bit lucky but we will take it. Lewis did a great lap [in qualifying] and deserved pole and he drove a very good race, controlling in the beginning.

“I was praying for a safety car. When I got out ahead I knew it was difficult to pass. He [Lewis] kept the pressure on, but the last five laps I could enjoy a little bit more.”

Mercedes blame technical glitch

World champion Hamilton was left disappointed after Vettel overtook him from the pits to win in Melbourne. He said: “I am in disbelief because I did everything I was supposed to do. I drove as well as I could and I didn’t put a foot wrong.”

After the race, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that a computer glitch meant the team miscalculated Hamilton’s lead when Vettel took his pit stop during the virtual safety-car. Quoted by The Daily Telegraph, Wolff said: “I think we have a software issue with the safety-car data, a situation we haven’t had before with a special constellation of cars on track, one going at high speed and the other at slow speed. The gap that we needed was wrongly calculated.”

Hamilton told The Guardian that he sometimes preferred to use his “racer’s instinct.” He said: “It is such a team effort but when you are relying on so much data, so much technology to come out with the strategy or whatever, I wish it was more in my hands. I feel like I was driving as good as ever.”

Wheels come off at Haas

Both Haas team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were forced to retire at Albert Park because of “loose wheels”.

The BBC reports that after stopping in the pits the two drivers were sent out with wheels that hadn’t been positioned correctly before the nuts were tightened. Magnussen’s race ended on lap 22 and Grosjean’s finished two laps later.

Grosjean had to abandon his Haas on a straight between turns two and three, meaning the virtual safety-car was imposed and led to Vettel’s overtaking of Hamilton. Magnussen and Grosjean were on course to finish inside the top-six in Melbourne and their early retirements were blamed on a lack of pit-stop practice, Autosport says.

The Haas team were fined €10,000 (£8,730) for the “unsafe pit releases” and team principal Gunther Steiner said: “This weekend was very tense for us – we had some issues in FP1, FP2, we didn’t have a lot of spares, so we didn’t do a lot of pitstop practice, and that could be one of the reasons.

“It was just a bad pitstop. The wheelnut got on wrong and it was cross-threaded. We couldn’t catch it early enough. You work in a 2.5-second window to do this and we were very unlucky.”

Referring to the team, he said: “This is a freak incident. We need to keep our heads up. We know we have a good year in front of us, we just need to analyse what happened and how can we make it that it doesn’t happen again.”

Alonso has high hopes for McLaren

One team who can be pleased with their performance in Melbourne is McLaren. Fernando Alonso finished fifth and Stoffel Vandoorne was ninth as both McLaren drivers scored points down under.

Spaniard Alonso believes that McLaren’s new partnership with engine provider Renault can help the team challenge Red Bull. Alonso told Sky Sports: “It is the first race with this [McLaren-Renault] combination.. hopefully from Bahrain we will see another step forward and Red Bull will be the next target. There is a lot of potential in the car still to be unlocked.”

The next Formula 1 Grand Prix will take place in Bahrain on 8 April.

F1 standings

How the F1 drivers’ championship table looks after the Australian Grand Prix.

• 1. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 25 points
• 2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 18
• 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 15
• 4. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 12
• 5. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) 10
• 6. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 8
• 7. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) 6
• 8. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 4
• 9. Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) 2
• 10. Carlos Sainz Jnr (Renault) 1