Formula 1 2019 Australian Grand Prix

Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel qualified third in Melbourne but was more than seven tenths slower than Mercedes' polesitter Lewis Hamilton, and dropped to fourth in the race after being passed by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.<br>But despite the team's on-track struggles - Vettel said he had "way less grip" throughout the weekend than in testing at Barcelona - evidence of a change in ...

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In his first F1 race since the 2017 United States GP 17 months ago, Kvyat came from 15th on the grid to finish 10th.<br>He gained ground with a long first stint, then overcame a trip through the Turn 3 gravel while trying to overtake Lance Stroll's Racing Point before repassing Pierre Gasly's Red Bull on its out-lap.<br>"I tried," said Kvyat of the move on Stroll. "It was a late move. I was coming ...

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With Liberty Media looking into more ways of "improving the show", a fastest lap bonus point was approved by the heads of Formula One just one week before the Australian Grand Prix, with mixed response from fans and pundits.<br>The idea behind it is to add the potential for extra in-race action, and giving teams that added debate about whether or not they should save their cars for the next race ...

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The Finn started off his 2019 campaign in perfect style with a dominant victory in the Australian Grand Prix, firmly putting to bed the frustrations of last year when he failed to take a win.<br>Having had a winter to reset himself to ensure he hit the ground running, Bottas just missed out on pole position in Melbourne and then charged away to a win after taking teammate Lewis Hamilton at the ...

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The Italian's Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car picked up floor damage at the start when he ran over debris from Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault.<br>He then had contact with the McLaren of Carlos Sainz at Turn 9, which damaged the front wing.<br>Struggling for pace and unable to fight other cars in the first stint, Giovinazzi lost around five seconds at his pitstop while the team made adjustments to balance ...

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The Italian team was considered the early favourite after two very strong weeks of testing in Spain, where its rival Mercedes did not get to grips with a heavily-updated car until the final day.<br>However, Ferrari started the Melbourne weekend on the back foot in Friday practice, trailed Mercedes by 0.7s in qualifying and its lead car finished fourth in the race, almost a minute adrift of ...

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The Japanese manufacturer rejoined the F1 grid in 2015 but failed to score a top-three finish across three seasons with McLaren and then spent last year quietly improving in the midfield with Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso.<br>Max Verstappen's third-place in the 2019 season-opening Australian Grand Prix was Honda's first rostrum in F1 since Rubens Barrichello stood on the 2008 British GP ...

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Hamilton had been left baffled during the Formula 1 season opener as to why he had been struggling with the balance of his Mercedes.<br>It was only after the race that his Mercedes team discovered damage to the floor area of his car ahead of the left rear tyre.<br>As the below images show, Hamilton was left without the last (and largest) fully enclosed hole and edge flap at the rear of the floor ...

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The shock of Mercedes’ dominant form in the season-opener was only matched by the surprise of a lack of a challenge from Ferrari and Red Bull, which both delivered strong performances in pre-season testing.<br>To discuss the top three, the midfield battle and the rest of the action in Melbourne, Edd Straw is joined by Andrew van Leeuwen.<br><br>More Melbourne insights:<br><br>Bottas ignored ...

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<br>Book up your trip to the French Grand Prix with Motorsport Live today<br><br>Grand Prix racing was the birthplace of motor racing, with the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of motorsport, calling home its central Paris office overlooking Place de la Concorde. Since the first races in 1902, an array of venues across France have played host first to a display ...

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Wolff says he made it clear on Sunday morning that he didn't want his drivers to potentially lose a podium position by going for the fastest lap, which under new rules gets a bonus point if the driver finishes inside the top 10.<br>However, race winner Bottas was heard on team radio discussing his quest for the extra point, while his engineer warned him that there were "games going on" with other ...

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A year ago in Melbourne both Haas drivers retired because their wheels were not correctly affixed during pitstops. The team had been holding fourth and fifth places prior to that.<br>Twelve months on, Grosjean was running seventh behind teammate Kevin Magnussen before a slow pitstop in which Haas had to have two attempts to fit his left-front wheel.<br>That dropped Grosjean into the midfield, and ...

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Vettel and Ferrari entered this weekend's 2019 season opener as the early favourites after a strong fortnight of testing at the Spanish Grand Prix circuit in which Vettel set the benchmark time.<br>But Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was fastest in all three practice sessions then 0.7 seconds faster than third-place starter Vettel in Saturday's final part of qualifying, which prompted Vettel to declare ...

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The Pole was taking part in his first F1 race since the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, although any hopes of a good result were dashed at the first corner when a collision with Pierre Gasly broke his front wing.<br>But that was not the only incident that the Williams driver had to battle through, as he eventually came home 17th and last.<br>Speaking about his afternoon, Kubica said the first worry ...

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Leclerc, making his Ferrari debut, caught his four-time world champion teammate in the closing stages of the grand prix.<br>He asked if he should stay behind Vettel, who was on older tyres, and was told "yes, and back off to have some margin".<br>Explaining why Vettel was struggling so much compared to Leclerc, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said: "When Seb pitted, put the medium tyres on ...

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Having been congratulated by his engineer on the cool-down lap after taking the chequered flag in Melbourne, Bottas said: "To whom it may concern, f*** you."<br>The message was interpreted as echoing the frustration he felt in the face of criticism last season after he failed to win a race while teammate Lewis Hamilton won his fifth world championship,<br>Bottas insisted that the comment was made ...

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Gasly, who started the Australian Grand Prix in 17th place after Red Bull was caught out by track evolution in Q1, couldn't recover to higher than 11th in the race.<br>He spent most of the race stuck behind the sister Toro Rosso car of Daniil Kvyat, and was unable to get past the Russian even when running on softer, fresher tyres late on.<br>“Pierre Gasly drove a very strong grand prix today,” ...

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As usual, Ricciardo was a wanted man in the lead-up to the Melbourne race, with a packed media and promotional schedule.<br>His week included local press and Renault filming commitments on Tuesday, driving Rick Kelly's Supercar for a Castrol promo on Wednesday, the F1 Live event on Wednesday evening, and countless appearances for sponsors and through his tie-up with the Confederation of Australian ...

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Verstappen finished third in the Australian Grand Prix to score Honda's first podium of the V6 turbo-hybrid era and its first F1 rostrum since Rubens Barrichello was third in the 2008 British Grand Prix.<br>He caught and passed Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari during the race and pressure Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in the closing stages as well.<br>Asked by Motorsport.com how encouraging that race-long ...

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Hamilton was left chasing answers after the Formula 1 season opener in Melbourne as to why he could not match teammate Valtteri Bottas – who dominated after snatching the lead at the start.<br>In the end, Hamilton came home more than 20 seconds adrift of his teammate, who had also taken an extra point for fastest lap.<br>Speaking after the race, Hamilton said that he had some ideas about why he ...

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Ricciardo's Renault bounced awkwardly over a gutter on the run to Turn 1 after he dropped his right-hand wheels onto the grass in reaction to a slow-starting Sergio Perez.<br>The impact tore the front wing off his car, immediately dashing any hopes of a decent result on home soil for the Aussie.<br>Having not expected to come across a gutter capable of causing significant damage, Ricciardo chalked ...

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Raikkonen ran ninth in the first stint, escaping a first corner brush of wheels with Lando Norris to slot in behind the two Haas and Nico Hulkenberg's Renault in the 'class B' battle.<br>The Alfa was the first car to make an ordinary pitstop in the race, on the 12th of the 58 laps, but Raikkonen said it was a compromised strategy.<br>"I think we had a small brake cooling [problem]," he explained ...

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F1 had pushed through changes to the technical regulations, including simplified front and rear wings and restrictions to the bargeboards and brake ducts, in order to boost overtaking this year.<br>The changes did not gather universal support from the teams, and there were widespread doubts that the measure would be effective, which Red Bull team boss Christian Horner saying the change had been an ...

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Bottas dominated the season opener after getting ahead of pole-man and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton on the run to the first corner at the start.<br>It marks his first win since the 2017 season finale in Abu Dhabi, after bad luck and poor form at the end of the year left him win-less in 2018.<br>Asked if he felt it was his best race in F1, Bottas said: "I think so. I don't know just what ...

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Hamilton headed Bottas in qualifying but lost his advantage almost immediately after a slower getaway.<br>He was able to resist pressure from Sebastian Vettel and latterly Max Verstappen to complete Mercedes' one-two, while Verstappen claimed Honda's first podium finish since the 2008 British GP on its maiden race with Red Bull.<br>Bottas outdragged Hamilton into Turn 1 and was left untroubled for ...

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Mercedes and Ferrari were the only two teams not to open their doors for extensive behind the scenes filming, and Wolff conceded that the decision by the Italian team not to taking part influenced his own.<br>The sport's two frontrunning teams are featured in the 10-part series only in generic race and paddock coverage, with no behind-the-scenes insight.<br>"I think we had some good reasons not to ...

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Can Ferrari fight back?<br>The pre-season favourites for many, Ferrari have been blown away by Mercedes in the first qualifying session. However, whilst the Silver Arrows' one-lap pace brought a dominant Saturday for the Brackley team, it by no means rules out Ferrari on Sunday, or for the remainder of the season.<br>Last year, Ferrari's tactics and Mercedes' errors yielded a win for the Scuderia ...

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Perez pipped Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg for the final Q3 slot by three hundredths of a second, but ended the final segment of qualifying slowest of the 10 cars.<br>Racing Point introduced an upgrade package this weekend, including modified bargeboards, new wing mirror mountings, modified brake ducts and additional aero flicks on the engine cover and sidepods, which Perez believes the team ...

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With the Grove-based outfit stuck to the bottom of the timesheets throughout the Australian GP weekend – 1.3 seconds adrift of the next slowest car in qualifying – the team knows it has a mountain to climb to make progress.<br>But speaking after qualifying in Melbourne, Russell said the team has got to the bottom of a major issue with the car that could provide it with a decent step forward in ...

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The Haas drivers emerged as the class of the midfield as the grid was set for the first F1 race of the season, Romain Grosjean and Magnussen qualifying sixth and seventh behind the two Mercedes, two Ferraris, and Max Verstappen's Red Bull.<br>Magnussen was deeply impressed with the performance, claiming that he can't fathom that his car isn't the class of the entire field.<br>"I think generally ...

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Ricciardo will start his home race, the Australian Grand Prix, in 12th, after missing out on advancing to the final qualifying segment.<br>The Aussie, who narrowly lost out to teammate Nico Hulkenberg and will share the sixth row of the grid with the German, said the result was frustrating but “not that painful”.<br>“Half a tenth would've made it much more pleasurable, being into Q3, that ...

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Max Verstappen split the Ferrari drivers in the first qualifying session for Red Bull-Honda's new partnership, and will start the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from fourth place.<br>Verstappen was 0.834s slower than Mercedes' poleman Lewis Hamilton in Melbourne, having lapped only seven tenths off the pace in qualifying for this race a year ago with Renault power.<br>However, when asked by ...

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The 19-year-old will start his grand prix debut from eighth on the grid in Melbourne, after McLaren’s low-key pre-season gave way to an unexpectedly encouraging qualifying performance.<br>Norris beat the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen and Racing Point of Sergio Perez in Q3, as McLaren every team in the midfield except Haas.<br>Norris said he had “a lot of nerves” going into qualifying because ...

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Although Williams has been stuck to the bottom of the timesheets throughout the Melbourne weekend, Kubica said before he hit the wall at Turn 10 in Q1 that there had actually been signs of some progress.<br>"It has been quite complicated for different reasons," said Kubica, who qualified last after the wall hit gave him a puncture.<br>"I think qualifying was difficult with the general feeling in ...

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Lewis Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two in Melbourne, beating teammate Valtteri Bottas to pole by just a tenth as Sebastian Vettel lapped 0.7s slower in the lead Ferrari.<br>Vettel had emerged from pre-season testing as the benchmark and Mercedes was still asserting Ferrari was the team to beat on the eve of the season opener.<br>Wolff said: "When we came to Australia and hit the road running on ...

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The Monegasque driver was quicker than teammate Sebastian Vettel in both Q1 and Q2, but ended up fifth on the grid behind the two Mercedes cars, Vettel and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.<br>Leclerc, who had been quickest of all in the first qualifying segment, took the blame for the disappointing showing.<br>"Very disappointed with myself," said Leclerc. "I was not here when I had to in Q3. It's all ...

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The team admitted last month it may delay using products from the Brazilian company, having struck a deal in February last year to change from BP/Castrol for 2019.<br>It is understood to be using Petrobras lubricants in the transmission but has not started the campaign using its other products, like fuel or engine oil.<br>“It’s still a work in progress,” said McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown when ...

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Gasly endured a nightmare first qualifying session for his new outfit and will start only 17th on the grid after being eliminated in the opening segment.<br>This marked Red Bull's first Q1 exit since Max Verstappen couldn't participate in qualifying at all last year in Monaco after a practice crash.<br>The plan was for the Frenchman to get through Q1 using only one set of tyres, with a fast lap, a ...

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Hamilton edged Bottas by just over a tenth to steal pole at the end of a frantic first shootout of the season in Melbourne, with testing benchmark Sebastian Vettel trailing Hamilton by 0.7s.<br>Ferrari had widely been considered to hold an advantage heading to Australia, and Hamilton insisted after qualifying that Mercedes "truly believed" it was behind, while Bottas claimed nobody in the team ...

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