The 2018 Formula One season kicked off these weekend with brand-new cars. The FORMULA 1 2018 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX was held at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, which became the first circuit in Formula One history to feature three DRS zones.
With the threat of rain for Saturday, the teams were anxious to jump into action Friday morning for the first of three free practice sessions. The two Mercedes drivers quickly found their way to the top of the leaderboard, with Lewis Hamilton setting the time to beat. Red Bull sandwiched the two Ferrari drivers. The top five drivers were all within a second of each other. Fernando Alonso was plagued with an exhaust issue which limited his track time, but both McLaren cars ended the day within the top ten, showing positive signs for the team. Meanwhile, Sergey Sirotkin had a close encounter with the barrier at the entrance to the pit lane.
The second free practice session of the weekend once again saw Hamilton on top, with Max Verstappen just 0.1 seconds behind. There were plenty of offs, as the drivers tested the limits of the new cars. Debris at the start/finish line brought out the red flag, which caused Daniel Ricciardo to get the first grid penalty of the season, having been caught speeding on his way back to the pit lane. The competition tightened between the top three teams, the top five drivers having all finished within 0.5 seconds from each other.
The track was slippery for the start of the final free practice session on Saturday morning, thanks to some rain. Full wet tyres were the compound of choice at the beginning of the session, followed by intermediate tyres as time progressed. In the closing minutes, Sebastian Vettel took the gamble to change to the dry tyres, setting a blistering lap time compared to the other drivers on the time sheet and giving himself the fastest lap of the session. Kimi Räikkönen finished the session in second, although he was 2.4 seconds behind his teammate ahead. Marcus Ericsson did an excellent job in the damp conditions to bring his Sauber into the top three, while Verstappen and Carlos Sainz concluded the top five.
Things dried out for the start of qualifying in the afternoon. The first qualifying session was routine, with Hamilton setting the fastest time and the two Ferrari drivers close behind. In Q2, Vettel showed that he was ready for a fight with Mercedes, taking away the fastest time of the session from Hamilton. Meanwhile, both McLaren cars narrowly missed out on making it into Q3. There was drama in Q3, with Bottas crashing out his Mercedes with just 10 minutes remaining in the session. He took turn one too hot on his first qualifying lap of the session, losing the rear of the car and backing it into the barriers at turn two. Unfortunately, this meant that he was unable to set a qualifying time and would also get a five-place grid penalty for a new gearbox. When the session resumed, Hamilton took the provisional pole position with a lightning fast lap time. Vettel was unable to beat the time, finishing behind Räikkönen. The Red Bull drivers followed closely behind, but Ricciardo still carried the three-place grid penalty from his FP2 infraction.
At the start of the race on Sunday, Hamilton was able to maintain his lead from pole position, while Kevin Magnussen threw a wrench in Red Bull’s strategy by overtaking Max Verstappen into the first turn. After a hard push to overtake, Verstappen spun in turn one a few laps into the race, ruining his chances to get past the Haas. Kimi Räikkönen and Hamilton were the first of the leaders to pit, while Vettel opted to stay out.
A pivotal point in the race was a double pit stop failure for both Haas drivers, with both cars retiring for loss wheels. This brought out the virtual safety car, allowing Vettel to pit without losing the lead to Hamilton. The Mercedes driver was on the attack with the laps ticking down in the race, but he ran wide into the grass, losing a lot of time. Thanks to the strong Mercedes pace and a backmarker, Hamilton was able to regain the time lost from his mistake, but wasn’t able to launch another attack, surrendering the race to Vettel.
Vettel takes the early lead in the World Drivers’ Championship, while Ferrari takes the lead in the World Constructors’ Championship. The teams and drivers will have two weeks to reflect on this weekend’s action. Next stop on the Formula One calendar in Bahrain for the FORMULA 1 2018 GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX on the weekend of April 8.
