It was a perfect storm for Lewis Hamilton as the reigning world champion notched up what in the end was an all too easy victory. Hamilton could have danced his way to the top step of the podium but instead dominated the Australian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg was never more than two seconds behind his team mate but could do nothing to trouble Hamilton throughout the 76 lap race. The Mercedes pairing continued the total domination they showed during 2014 and if anything the outfit is now more powerful than before. Hamilton got a clean getaway at the start with Nico Rosberg nearly losing his second place to a fast charging Felipe Massa as the swarm of formula one cars roared down towards the first right hand corner. Kimi Raikkonen’s right-front wheel was clipped by his slow starting team mate as the two were navigating turn 1 side by side. Raikkonen was pushed across the outer kerb going into the following corner which forced him to slow and was soon crowded out by the Sauber of F1 new boy Felipe Nasr and the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado. As the three crowded out each other Maldonado was the eventual victim and was tagged from behind by Nasr, pitched into a spin and into the crash barrier. The Lotus was out and so was the safety car. With the safety car period over by lap 3 Hamilton again stormed into the lead, Raikkonen by now was in 8th position but later on in the race fell victim to a botched pitstop after his pit-crew failed to properly attach his left rear wheel, it meant game over for Raikkonen by lap 41. Raikkonen’s new team mate fared better, Sebastian Vettel hounded the Williams of Felipe Massa for much of the first half of the race and eventually leapt into third place courtesy of quicker pitstops. Try as he did Massa couldn’t prize Vettel from third which was good news for Ferrari as the German claimed his first podium in his first race for his new team. Sauber may have been in an odd position of their own making over who would actually end up racing for them for the weekend but at least their selected driver line up put in a strong showing. Felipe Nasr finished an excellent 5th with a promising display that will underline the rest of his season while team mate Marcus Ericsson was a credible 8th. Daniel Riccardo finished in 7th place, the Renault powered Red Bull is down on power and suffers from poor driveability as such Riccardo had to experience the bitterness of being lapped by the end of the race. The Torro Rosso driven by Carlos Sainz Jr was a properly impressive 9th position followed by the Force India of Sergio Perez. Jenson Button finished in last place as only 11 cars survived the rigors of the opening race of the season. Its unusual in modern day formula one to have so few finishers, reliability has been impressive almost bullet proof by all teams for the last few years. What isn’t impressive is the McLaren Honda partnership being beaten by the likes of lesser funded teams such as Force India and Torro Rosso, it will surely be an embarrassment and a spur to make sweeping improvements. So bad was McLaren’s winter testing form that Button was delighted just to simply complete the 76 lap race. What is most impressive is the form of Lewis Hamilton, he was able to measure his speed against his team mate throughout the entire race and could have gone even faster had he needed to do so. That he didn’t will have Rosberg worried while the rest can only look on in envy. Australian Grand Prix Race Results