Valtteri Bottas dominates Australian Grand Prix to win Formula One opener

Bitter, bitter disappointment scarred the final part of last season for Valtteri Bottas. At the Russian Grand Prix, and no longer in the championship fight, he was ordered to cede his lead to Lewis Hamilton. He duly played the team game but it would have been as hard to swallow as any moment in his career. Here in Melbourne he found redemption in the most emphatic style by putting Hamilton to the sword in the first race of the 2019 season and winning the Australian Grand Prix.

Bottas has been open about how frustrated he had felt with some of his performances last season and had come back this year with the absolute intent to make his mark. His triumph in doing so was palpable. “To whom it may concern: f**k you,” he announced over the radio after taking the flag in what he later described as the best race of his life.

The 29-year-old believes he can be in the fight for the world championship and to do so he knows he must first beat his teammate. He did so in Melbourne with aplomb and Hamilton accepted he had been outraced. He finished 20.8sec behind the Finn, although the world champion had not been pushing, managing his pace due to a car problem caused by damage to the floor picked up on lap four.

Mercedes, who have repeatedly been explicit that they will let their drivers race without team orders while both are in the battle for the title and did so here, will welcome the one-two, especially after they had looked to be behind the pace of Ferrari after testing. They have been dominant while the Scuderia leave Albert Park with some serious questions to answer.

Sebastian Vettel finished in fourth for Ferrari with his teammate Charles Leclerc in fifth. Vettel had started in third but having been unhappy with the balance of his car all weekend was unable to hold off Max Verstappen’s Red Bull when he charged on fresher rubber to take the final podium place. Vettel was ultimately almost a minute back on Bottas by the time the chequered flag fell. Ferrari’s car had lookedabsolutely planted during testing, quick and enjoying marvellous balance that allowed its drivers to attack the corners. In Australia they had a different beast entirely.

Drawing too many conclusions from the race here is tricky, however. Albert Park is not typical of most circuits, an outlier and one where overtaking is notoriously hard. Nonetheless, to have enjoyed such a decisive victory here will be taken as a very positive indicator for the season ahead by Mercedes – and for Ferrari that they have work to do.

Red Bull and their new engine partners Honda willalso take great heart in that they were so strong outof the blocks and completed the weekend without

any significant engine issues. For Honda, who havenow secured their first podium since returning tothe sport as an engine supplier in 2014, theirperseverance looks to be finally paying off.

For Bottas, a fourth career victory and his first since Abu Dhabi in 2017 is the confidence boost he so desperately needed. The crucial moment came when the lights went out. Bottas made a quick start from second on the grid, while Hamilton had some wheelspin from pole, and the Finn was in front by the time they entered turn one.

With Mercedes letting their drivers race, they were happy with Bottas’s pace out front and as the pit stops came in to play he was able to build the advantage he had taken off the line into aninsurmountable lead.

Vettel opened the sequence of pit stops, coming into take the medium tyre on lap 14. Hamilton followed him a lap later to cover off the undercut.But the team told Bottas his pace was quicker and that they would keep him out. He promptly confirmed it by pumping in some fastest laps.

This was the form Bottas demonstrated only sparingly in 2018 and, indeed, when he did he had on occasion been felled by ill-fortune – as at Baku last year when he went out with a puncture while leading.

In Australia lady luck was finally smiling on the Finn. Hamilton and Vettel were simply unable to challenge his pace and when Mercedes sent him into the pits on lap 22, he emerged behind only Verstappen, who had yet to stop and was comfortably clear of Hamilton and Vettel. Mercedes later reported that the damage to the floor of Hamilton’s car had affected its balance but, nonetheless, when Verstappen went into the pits on lap 25, Bottas was back in the lead.

With the pit-stop sequence complete he held a strong advantage. By lap 30 he was 16sec clear of Hamilton in second and 18sec in front of Vettel. The German then came under pressure from Verstappen, who attacked towards turn three on his fresher rubber and made it stick to take third.

Bottas made abundantly clear that there was a relentless determination to stamp his authority on this season from the off when he insisted to the team he was going after the extra point for the fastest lap that has been added to the regulations in 2019.

He duly secured it just before his victory. It leaves him top of the table and, compared to the heartache and desperation that ended last season, positively on top of the world.

Daniel Ricciardo, the local hero, went on to the grass off the start line and lost his front wing, forcing him to make an early stop to replace it. It sent him to the back of the field and the Renault driver ultimately had to retire as a precautionary measure on lap 31.

Kevin Magnussen in the Haas was in sixth; Renault’s Nico Hülkenberg in seventh, with Kimi Räikkönen in the Alfa Romeo in eighth. Lance Stroll was ninth for Racing Point and Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso in tenth. Britain’s Lando Norris was a very impressive 12th for McLaren in his first GP. George Russell at the struggling Williams for his debut was in 16th in front of his team-mate Robert Kubica.

S E C O N D

44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES

"It was an incredible weekend for the team, we’re leaving Melbourne with maximum points. Valtteri did an exceptional job today – congratulations to him. I had a pretty straightforward race today; I lost position at the start and my race was pretty much done and dusted after the first corner. Afterwards it was really about bringing the car home and bagging the points. I had to pit early to cover the pit stop from Ferrari, so I had a long second stint and drove super carefully to make sure I had tyres left at the end of the race. I’ll bag the eighteen points I got today, keep working and come back recharged for the next one. It was a really great weekend for the team and I’m really happy for everyone. We showed a great performance today and we need to continue to build on this – we have a long season ahead of us."

T H I R D

33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA

“I am very happy for the Team and also for Honda to finish on the podium today. Since we started working together it has been amazing and I am really enjoying the partnership, so this is a welldeserved third place for all of us. To be able to challenge Lewis at the end of the race and overtake Seb on-track, which around here is very difficult, is very positive. We had a little advantage with the tyres but it was satisfying to pressure Lewis even though I couldn’t get quite close enough to overtake him. The car was working really well and we also look strong on the straights which is hopefully a good sign for the rest of the season. I heard this is the first podium for Honda since 2008 so I am very happy that I managed to achieve this for them today.”

F O U R T H

5 Sebastian Vettel FERRARI

“We were not happy with the car the whole weekend but today we struggled a lot. The reason I was so slow in the race was mostly due to the fact that the car could not find enough grip with the medium tyres that we fitted at the pit stop. As a team, we still got a decent amount of points from our fourth and fifth places, but this is not the result we were aiming for just a few weeks ago. So in the coming days, we will analyse the data in detail so as to be ready for the next race, which is not far away now. I’m sure that looking at all the information we have gathered here will give us a better understanding, but today, the result we got was the best we could do.”

F I F T H

16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI

“I made a good start, to the extent that I managed to pass Verstappen and found myself alongside Sebastian, who was fighting a Mercedes. That meant I had to put my wheels on the grass at the exit of the first esses, which allowed Max to get in front of me again. At the start, the car was not so easy to drive and that led to me making a small mistake at the first corner, which cost me a handful of seconds. We decided to fit the hard tyres at the pit stop and, I have to say, that from then on, the car improved a lot and I was able to push. Towards the end, I closed on Sebastian, but the team decided to keep our positions, given that the top three places were not within our grasp today. Now, we will work with the engineers to try and understand why we were not as strong as we had hoped to be, even though we brought home a good points haul.”

S I X T H

20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI

“I’m very happy about today, it was a good result. I’m obviously sad for team not to have both cars get to the finish. Surely Romain (Grosjean) would have been in a good position as well, especially after we both had such good qualifying yesterday, so I’m gutted for his side that they didn’t get anything out of today. P6 for me is very good, I’m happy with the day. I made a good start and had a really good car from there. I was able to push the whole race and look after my tires. I’m really happy to start the year like this.”

S E V E N T H

27 Nico Hulkenberg RENAULT

“It’s a good start to the season with some solid points on the board. It was a tricky race – especially the final 10 laps – I was under pressure and really had to fight to hang onto seventh place. I’m pleased to pull that off. The start and the first lap made our race; it’s so crucial to have track position around here and from there it was about managing the car and the tyres. We can be pleased with today, it’s a positive result, but it also shows we have a lot of work ahead of us. We need to dig deep and continue finding performance especially to improve the car balance.”

E I G H T H

7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI

“Our car was pretty strong in the race, but then we got stuck behind cars and there is not much you can do. It seems that it is easier to get closer to the car in front of you but it’s still very hard to overtake. In addition, we had an issue with the temperature of the rear brakes as one of the tear-offs from the visor went in and that’s why we had to pit earlier than planned. But as I said, the car has a lot of speed and it felt good, so I’m looking forward to the race in Bahrain.”

N I N T H

18 Lance Stroll RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES

“I am really pleased with my race today – it has been a great day at the office. It’s really nice to pick up some points on the first weekend of the season, but it wasn’t easy. It was a really challenging afternoon, chasing Hulkenberg and Raikkonen ahead of me while also keeping Kvyat and Gasly behind me for most of the race. I was under a lot of pressure and it was very tight, but I am glad we managed to pick up two points. We were always planning to go long with our strategy: we were starting out of position so we knew the key was to make a good start and gain some places in the opening stages, which we did. After that, we had good pace and managed to hold off the cars behind us on softer tyres than ours. We saw today that it’s going to be really close in the middle of the grid, but we are definitely in the fight.”

T E N T H

26 Daniil Kvyat SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA

“It was an excellent race today! I’m happy with the way I drove and it was really enjoyable. There was a lot of positives to come from the race - it’s just a shame about yesterday’s qualifying as we had the opportunity to start a bit further ahead! We had good tyre management throughout the race and we definitely had the pace to fight for higher positions but, as we know, it’s difficult to overtake around Albert Park. I tried to catch Stroll, but I was a bit on the edge and I couldn’t make it. I had a good battle with Pierre towards the end of the race, I felt like I could fight him well and at the end it was satisfying to keep a quicker car behind almost the whole race. I know we have a good package with the car and the engine, so we need to keep developing it. I’m very optimistic for the next few races and I think it’s possible to achieve good results.”