Buried in the F1 rulebook is a line most people don’t read. Always expect the unexpected, such a rule applied to Valtteri Bottas who stormed to an imperious victory at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. Mercedes had qualifying and the front row to themselves. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton was favourite to win, his team mate had not won a race in 2018. However, Bottas had other ideas come race day. He made a perfect getaway and out dragged Hamilton into the first corner and was never troubled again.
Hamilton struggled to match his teammate’s race pace which was evident as Max Verstappen, in the unfancied Red Bull Honda, was able to keep up with the more powerful Mercedes.
Max Verstappen didn’t quite have enough to really trouble Hamilton at the Australian GP. But earlier on he did trouble Ferrari and muscled his way past Vettel to take second. Late on during the race, Verstappen pushed a little too hard and ran wide at turn 1 as he chased after Hamilton’s 2nd place.
But Hamilton wasn’t too worried, however unknown to him was an undiagnosed issue. The floor of his Mercedes had picked up damage to the right rear section. This would later corroborate Hamilton’s assertion, during the race, that the car felt unstable at the rear.
Ferrari who were touted as pre-season favourites turned up at the Albert Park circuit only to be out-raced by Verstappen in the Red Bull Honda. Sebastian Vettel struggled for pace and in the closing stages his new team mate, Charles Leclerc, was clearly faster. However, Leclerc’s new paymasters instructed him to retain position. And rank.
The remainder of the top 10 was taken by the Kevin Magnussen in the Hass, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, Lance stroll for Racing Point and Daniil Kvyat for Torro Rosso.
The mid-field was typically close. Although Renault’s newest star recruit Daniel Ricciardo eliminated himself at the start of the Australian GP after losing his front wing due to hitting a ditch buried in the grass verge.
Newboy Lando “Calrissian” Norris who qualified in the top 10 finished a lowly 12th for McLaren. Another debutant, Alex Albon also went backward from his qualifying position finishing 14th for Torro Rosso.
Williams were nowhere and finished where they started, way off the pace and clueless. Debutant George Russell did his best as did incident prone Robert Kubica.
However, after a winless 2018 season, Valtteri Bottas cruised to an easy victory, to secure a dominant Australian GP win nearly 20 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Hamilton will bounce back for sure, but will Ferrari? Perhaps it was a bad day/weekend at the office for the Scuderia. Bahrain could be different, or a repeat of the GP just gone.
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