Race report
Formula 1 Australian GP
Hamilton leads dominant Mercedes 1-2
World champion Lewis Hamilton began his title defence in perfect style with a controlled drive to victory in the Australian Grand Prix.
Pablo Elizalde
Edited: Mar 15, 2015, 8:24 AM
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The Briton, starting from pole, was followed closely by Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, but his lead was never challenged in what was pretty much a processional race.
Rosberg secured Mercedes' first one-two of the year, finishing 1.4 seconds behind Hamilton.
Sebastian Vettel completed the podium in his first race for the Ferrari team after a pretty much trouble-free event.
But Mercedes' dominance was evident, with Vettel coming home over 34 seconds behind Hamilton.
Felipe Massa was fourth for Williams, while fellow Brazilian Felipe Nasr had an impressive debut to finish in fifth position for Sauber.
Local hero Daniel Ricciardo had to be content with sixth position ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Marcus Ericsson, who completed a dream day for Sauber after a difficult weekend for the Swiss squad.
Toro Rosso's rookie Carlos Sainz finished in ninth, but he could have been much higher had he not lost a lot of time during a pitstop.
Sergio Perez completed the top ten, while Jenson Button was the last finisher, outside of the points.
The two Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean retired on the opening lap, the Venezuelan spinning into the wall after making contact with the Sauber of Felipe Nasr at Turn 1, which caused the safety car to be deployed.
Grosjean drove into the pits and out of the race at the end of lap one.
Only 15 cars started the race after Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat and McLaren's Kevin Magnussen failed to reach the grid before the start of the race.
Magnussen, starting from the back of the grid, stopped on his way to the grid with smoke coming from the back of his Honda-powered car.
Red Bull's Kvyat, starting 13th, was ruled out of the race with a broken gearbox also before the start.
Valtteri Bottas was declared unfit to race following his back problems during qualifying.
Australian GP results - 58 laps:
Pos. Driver Team Time/Gap 1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31'54.067 2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1.300 3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 34.523 4 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 38.100 5 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1:25.149 6 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1 lap 7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1 lap 8 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1 lap 9 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault 1 lap 10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1 lap 11 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 2 laps Retirements Laps Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 49 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 32 Roberto Merhi Manor-Ferrari 0 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 0 Will Stevens Manor-Ferrari 0 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 0 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 0 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 0 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Honda 0
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