RACE DEBRIEF AUSTRALIAN GP
FINISHING STRAIGHTFebruary. Finally, the stopwatch would prove who
had done the best job over the winter.
Unfortunately, there was only one silver car in
contention, for the W09 of Valtteri Bottas was on a
flat-bed trailer in pieces after he carried too much
speed into Turn 1 and smashed rearwards into the
barriers at Turn 2. The Finn had dipped his left-rear
wheel onto wet grass (a legacy of morning rain),
picked up a heap of wheelspin and rotated hard
into the barriers, bringing out the red flag.
That meant it was down to Ferrari and Red Bull
to take the challenge to Hamilton on the second
and final run of Q3. But second time around, there
was no stopping Lewis. He had pole by 0.664s from
Räikkönen, followed by Vettel and Max Verstappen.
Quizzed as to whether a so-called ‘party mode’
of the F1 M09 EQ Power+ had been available for
qualifying and if that was why his second run wasLewis Hamilton delivered on his pre-season form
with pack-leading pace in Melbourne – so how did
he lose a race that was in his pocket?
The man who was partying on Sunday night in
Melbourne was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. He had
benefited from a moment of good fortune to take
the first victory of the season, ahead of title rival
Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.
After qualifying, this race should have been
comfortably won by Hamilton, but as the race was
neutralised by a Virtual Safety Car, Ferrari seized
on the opportunity to pit Vettel and reduce the
time lost changing his tyres. He emerged ahead ofa “gutted” Hamilton and held on for the win.
In the Melbourne sunset, the Ferrari man
conceded he had been “lucky”, while at Mercedes
there was a detailed debrief as they tried to
understand how the win had got away...QUALIFYING
The 12 intense minutes of Q3, late on Saturday
afternoon, were the moments we’d been waiting
for since the 2018 cars were unveiled in mid-THE WIN THAT
GOT AWAY
ERCEDES THOUGHT THEY
CORRECTLY CALCULATED
T LEWIS WAS SAFE FROM
VETTEL EVEN IF HE DID PIT
DURING THE VSC – BUT THEIR
CALCULATIONS WERE TWO
SECONDS OUT“
so much quicker than his first, Lewis replied: “I can
assure you, we don’t have a party mode. I use the
same mode from Q2 to the end of Q3. There was
no extra button.”
But Vettel couldn’t resist enquiring about the
slow pace of his rival’s first run: “Then what were
you doing before?” he jibed.
“I was waiting to put a good lap in,” responded
the world champ, “to wipe the smile off your face...”
Daniel Ricciardo had been demoted on the
starting grid following an indiscretion in Friday
practice. A piece of timing cable had worked loose
on the start/finish line, bringing out the red flag
and the stewards deemed that Ricciardo had failed
to slow significantly. He was awarded two penalty
points and a three-place grid drop. It was a decision
he described on Friday as “shithouse” and when he
reiterated this on Saturday, a member of his team
suggested he “took a moment to calm down.”
Make no mistake, the stakes are high this
season and the drivers are feeling it.RACE
From lights out Hamilton retained his position at
the head of the field in front of fellow front-row
starter Räikkönen. Behind them, Vettel had fended
off Verstappen at Turn 1 and that enabled Kevin