F1 Australian Grand Prix: Hamilton eases to victory as Vettel bags podium on Ferrari debut

Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday to start his F1 title defence on a high note. The Briton was

Lewis Hamilton\'s 34th career F1 victory was a straightforward one from pole position at the Australian Grand Prix. (PIC: Mercedes AMG F1)

Sebastian Vettel started his Ferrari career with a podium at the Australian Grand Prix. (PIC: Ferrari Media)

Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday to start his F1 title defence on a high note.

The Briton was unchallenged for the entire duration of the race, eventually finishing 1.3 seconds ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg. The Mercedes duo finished over 30 seconds clear of their nearest challenger, refuting claims that the Silver Arrows will fall into clutches of their rivals this F1 season.

Sebastian Vettel finished on the rostrum on his debut for Ferrari, having leapfrogged the Williams of Felipe Massa during the pitstops.

Felipe Nasr was arguably the driver of the day having finished in fifth place on his Formula 1 debut for Sauber. Marcus Ericsson - who has been often criticised for his poor performances - rounded off a strong day for Sauber by taking eighth at the chequered flag. It was an impressive result for the Hinwil based squad who are wrangled in contractual issues with former test driver Giedo van der Garde.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo again struggled with drivability the Renault power unit and finished a lowly sixth at home turf, a lap down on the leaders. Considering Sainz Jr’s Toro Rosso only managed a 9th place finish after a promising qualifying session, Renault have a lot of work to do to close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari.

Force India were able to take advantage of the reduced grid with Nico Hulkenberg finishing seventh and Sergio Perez classified 10th, after his earlier tussles with Jenson Button.

Button, in turn, was the only driver not to finish in the points as only 11 cars made it to the chequered flag. With his Honda engine turned down, the 2009 world championship languished at the back of the pack, eventually finishing two laps down on race winner Lewis Hamilton.

PRE-RACE DRAMA THINS FIELD
However, the lack of race starters was more worrying for the sport as a whole. Only 15 cars lined up on the grid in Melbourne with two Manors not taking part in qualifying and Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull and the McLaren-Honda of Kevin Magnussen stopping en route to the grid with mechanical issues. Valtteri Bottas failed to pass a fitness test after sustaining back injuries during qualifying. He too was forced to watch the race from the sidelines.

While the race was not the most exhilarating in recent times - partly due to lack of cars and partly due to lack of a wheel-to-wheel fight between the Mercedes pairing - there were some pointers about the pace of the cars.

Mercedes have extended their advantage at the front of the grid and it won’t be wrong to predict another walkover for the Brackley based squad. Ferrari seem to have made the biggest gains over the winter with Sauber also accruing the benefits of a more powerful engine. Renault finds themselves in a tough situation for a second season running and one is likely to hear Christian Horner bashing about the French manufacturer's power unit plenty of times this season.

However, it won’t be until the Malaysian Grand Prix before we know the true relative pace of the 10 teams competing in the championship. That takes place between 27-29 March at Sepang International Circuit on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Australian Grand Prix - Results