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Nico Rosberg continues his win streak as he won today's grand prix in Melbourne, Australia. He was well ahead of rivals Hamilton and Vettel when he reached the chequered flag.
The race was supposed to start 5:00 am british time, but the race was postponed temporarily when Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull stopped right in the middle of the starting grid due to an electrical problem, and the other cars were forced out on a second formation lap. Kvyat's car was brought back into the pitlane, but Red Bull were unable to restart the car.
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Sebastian Vettel had a fantastic start as he dived right between both front runners Hamilton and Rosberg, shortly followed by team mate Kimi Räikkönen. Hamilton dropped all the way from pole to 6th place, and ended up behind William's Massa, where he remained until lap 4. Meanwhile, Rosberg managed to stay third right behind Räikkönen. Toro Rosso had a strong start, with Verstappen on fourth and Sainz jr right behind Hamilton. Kevin Magnussen started the race with a puncture, and the danish driver was forced into the pits for new tyres.
On lap 9, Sainz jr. went for new tyres as he tried to pull of an undercut on his opponents, while Red Bull driver Ricciardo managed to overtake Massa in a straight section. In the meantime, Hamilton was stuck behind Verstappen, seemingly unable to overtake the dutch driver. Rosberg managed to overtake Räikkönen thanks to a successful undercut.
A pitstop for Vettel left Hamilton as a very temporary race leader. Vettel quickly restored the order and overtook Hamilton with impressive efficiency.
On lap 18, Alonso collided heavily with Gutierrez' Haas, and the race was redflagged. Alonso, up in 10th place, attempted to overtake Gutierrez, when the mexican braked earlier than Alonso anticipated, and Alonso was propelled into the wall. The crash left Alonso's McLaren disintegrated into a fine paste. Fortunately, neither Alonso or Gutierrez were harmed in the crash.
The race resumed after a 10 minute break. While Mercedes opted for medium tyres, both Ferrari drivers had decided to use supersofts, meaning they would have to pit again later. Ultimately, this cost Vettel the first win of the season, and that extra pitstop the supersofts forced him to make cost him both first and second place. Team mate Räikkönen had to retire on lap 21 with flames coming out of his airbox.
Hamilton resumed the race from 7th place, but managed to climb all the way to second. Vettel managed to reach him in the final stint of the race, but a mistake in a corner left Vettel unable to challenge Hamilton again.
Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson retired on lap 38 due to an unknown loss of power.
Haas driver Grosjean managed to stay out of trouble and scored the first points finish for Haas F1 team.
Rookie Jolyon Palmer had a very stable first race, and managed to stay ahead of the two Toro Rosso drivers of Sainz and Verstappen for quite some time, while Verstappen cursed and begged his team to let him past Sainz so he could try to overtake the Renault driver instead. Eventually, Sainz managed to overtake Palmer, but by then both Toro Rosso drivers had lost precious time, and they finished in 9th and 10th.
Red Bull's Ricciardo managed to finish the race in fourth place after a stable race. This year's Renault unit (named TAG Heuer for Red Bull) appears to be significantly better compared to last year's unit: the australian managed to breeze past Mercedes powered cars on several occasions.
It looks a little brighter for Manor this year, as rookie Pascal Wehrlein managed to race the other cars on several occasions. Rio Haryanto's first race in F1 came to a disappointing end as he retired on lap 17 for reasons unknown.
Interesting to note is that Ferrari looked very much on par with Mercedes today, and it seems likely that they would have won the race had they not decided to race with supersofts after the red flag. However, Räikkönen's engine failure could be a potential concern for the italian team.
As earlier mentioned, the Renault/TAG unit looks much stronger, strong enough to overtake Mercedes powered cars in a straight with help of DRS. In fact, the works Renault car of Palmer did manage speeds almost within the range of the cars with Mercedes units.
McLaren also looks slightly stronger. Even if this race turned out to be a dissapointing one for the Woking based team, they had a very stable weekend, and for a while, points were available for them. This year's McLaren MP4-31 is estimated to be five seconds faster than last year's MP4-30.
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