Sebastian Vettel landed the first blow in the 2018 Formula 1 title battle after claiming victory at the season-opening Australian GP.
The Ferrari driver took advantage of a mid-race Virtual Safety Car to turn what was looking like a comfortable race for Lewis Hamilton into an upset win, emerging ahead of the Mercedes after his one and only pit-stop and holding off the world champion to the end.
When the lights went out, it was the Briton who maintained his pole position to lead into Turn 1, Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel sat in behind but Kevin Magnussen would boldly pass Max Verstappen around the outside for fourth.
Daniel Ricciardo, starting eighth after a grid penalty, looked to move up and passed Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 13 using DRS for seventh, from that point the race settled with two battles emerging.
After his considerable margin in qualifying, Hamilton faced a much more considerable threat from Ferrari as Raikkonen and Vettel shadowed his Mercedes staying around three seconds apart.
Behind, Verstappen was desperate to make up for the lost position to Magnussen but minor damage would dramatically hurt the handling on the Dutchman’s Red Bull and, struggling to get close enough to make a move, Max overstepped the limit spinning at Turn 1 and dropping several positions.
With the tyres slowly dropping off, Raikkonen would pit first in an attempt to undercut the leader, ushering a quick response from Mercedes who brought Hamilton in a lap later.
Both would switch to the Soft compound tyre to ensure durability to the end of the race, but Vettel would stay out perhaps looking to enter a window where he could fit the Supersoft for the second stint.
We wouldn’t find out, however, as the turning point came when both Magnussen and Haas teammate Romain Grosjean would pit for tyres from fourth and fifth respectively but leave with a wheel unproperly attached.
Though the Dane was able to get to a safe area on the inside of Turn 4, Grosjean would not, coming to a halt on the exit of Turn 2 and requiring the VSC to recover his car.
It was then Vettel opted to pit for tyres and the 12-second margin, which would normally be far from sufficient to get out ahead, would prove just enough to rejoin ahead of Hamilton in the lead of the race.
The VSC would eventually become a full Safety Car period to clear the stricken Haas away.
At the restart, an irate Hamilton looked to get back past but two mistakes at key moments proved decisive as he never got in a proper position to make a move and the Ferrari held him at bay to take the win.
Kimi Raikkonen would face a major threat from Ricciardo, who moved up after Haas’ demise, with the Australian desperate to score a podium at his home Grand Prix.
With overtaking proving very tough, however, the ‘Iceman’ had enough in hand to finish third just beating the Red Bull over the finish line.
Fernando Alonso was another significant benefactor of the VSC, jumping from ninth to fifth and would face a defensive battle of his own to keep Verstappen behind and claim a very strong result for McLaren.
Nico Hulkenberg was seventh with Valtteri Bottas, who started 15th after his crash in qualifying, struggling to make his way through the field for much of the result before also pitting under VSC and moving up to eighth.
Stoffel Vandoorne and Carlos Sainz completed the points scorers.
After scoring double points in 16 of 20 races last year, Force India failed to get off the mark in Melbourne with Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon 11th and 12th.
Charles Leclerc enjoyed a solid F1 debut in 13th for Sauber beating Lance Stroll and Brendon Hartley, as the Kiwi brought up the finishers.
