Formula 1 – VC Australia

The opening race of this year's Formula 1 World Championship, the Australian Grand Prix, is behind us. There was certainly no shortage of interesting situations, overtaking maneuvers or surprising results. But the best news is that this year probably won't be a one-man season…

Red Bull dominated in an unprecedented way in the qualification , which was not traditionally completed until one in the morning today. The first Vettel gave his colleague Mark Webber about four tenths, the third Hamilton then seven tenths. Felipe Massa finished fourth, Fernando Alonso fifth, Nico Rosberg sixth, Kimi Räikkönen seventh, Romain Grosjean eighth, Paul di Resta ninth, and Jenson Button closed the top ten with a massive loss.

The start of the race went well for both Ferraris . Massa slipped to second place, Alonso to third after the initial battle with Hamilton. Vettel controlled his position expertly and started to pull away, on the other hand, his teammate Mark Webber messed up the start and fell behind Kimi Räikkönen , who then also got ahead of Hamilton, who was driving in the colors of Mercedes.

Before the first stops, which came already in the fifth lap, the order was: 1. Vettel, 2. Massa, 3. Alonso, 4. Räikkönen, 5. Hamilton . Sebastian Vettel was the first to drive from the top to the mechanics in the eighth lap. A lap later he was followed by Felipe Massa and also by Alonso with Räikkönen. The order was subsequently mixed up and stabilized only after the fourteenth lap, when both Mercedes had a stop behind them.

Adrian Sutil with Force India found himself in the lead at that moment, who drove a different strategy than Alonso et al. and began to speak prominently into the events at the head. In the fifteenth lap the order was: 1. Sutil, 2. Vettel, 3. Massa, 4. Alonso, 5. Räikkönen . Ferrari correctly estimated the moment when it is better to send Alonso to the pits, and in the twentieth lap the Spaniard visited his pit stop for the second time. Two laps later he was followed by Adrian Sutil, followed by Sebastian Vettel. On the contrary, Felipe Massa decided to wait on the track according to the team's instructions.

To the surprise of some participants, when exiting the pits, the twin Sutil Vettel lined up to Fernando Alonso , who thus took a big step towards overall success. Meanwhile, Massa indicated that staying on track was not a good move and also headed to his mechanics. The order in the thirtieth lap was as follows: 1. Räikkönen, 2. Hamilton, 3. Alonso, 4. Vettel, 5. Sutil .

Driving inconspicuously, Räikkönen headed for his second and final stop on lap 34. However, that was after the Alonso vs. Hamilton, which turned out, thanks to a great maneuver by Alonso, in his favor. Hamilton then headed to the pits. But back to Räikkönen, who managed to return in fifth place after his stop.

Sebastian Vettel made his last stop on lap 38, followed by Alonso a lap later, which indicated a clear track for the "Iceman". Räikkönen then lived up to his famous speed and also accuracy when, after a maneuver on the excellent driving Sutil, he got to the front and started to pass the drivers behind him. Alonso paid the most for this, who, although he drove with surgical precision, could not find a recipe for Lotus' excellent strategy .

In the fiftieth lap, the order was: 1. Räikkönen, 2. Alonso, 3. Vettel, 4. Massa, 5. Sutil . By the way, the fifth Sutil made his stop and drove the last leg of the race on crumbling supersoft tires. He felt that a few laps under the pitstop, when Hamilton and Webber overtook him in no time. Nothing has changed at the front so far, Räikkönen led with a lead of about seven seconds ahead of Alonso , who had another ten seconds to spare on Vettel.

By the end of the race, only the distances were changing, so Kimi Räikkönen drove for the first victory of the year with Lotus , for whom it was the second win after his return last season. Fernando Alonso finished second and Sebastian Vettel finished third , who mainly lacked speed towards the end of the race. Felipe Massa underlined Ferrari's good form with fourth place.

The next race is already next week in Sepang, Malaysia .

Complete standings of the VC Australia:

Source: formula1.com