Once again Albert Park is the host for the first meeting of the Formula 1 World Championship. The traffic lights will mark the beginning of a new era for the premier class of motor sports. The new regulations will make the tires wider, the single-seaters lower and more aggressive; but above all, it will be quicker by about four to six seconds per lap thanks to faster cornering.
With all this, we arrive in Australia with Mercedes as the favorite, a promising Ferrari team and Mclaren-Honda hurt by the low performance of the car. For the first time since 1994 we start the season without a world champion defending his title, just as Alain Prost did and Nico Rosberg announced to his fan`s that he would not defend his title. So, Lewis Hamilton was with a new team mate, Valtteri Bottas, but that didn`t stop him from taking the pole on Saturday. Everything looked good for the Englishman who shared the first line of the grid with the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, followed by Bottas and Raikkonen. Lewis Hamilton managed to keep his position. However, Vettel was not willing to give up and he managed a lightning speed lap after another and got closer to Hamilton’s Mercedes. That caused a premature pit stop of the Englishman, moving him from the leading position to a position, being trapped behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. In this way, Sebastian Vettel managed to get his first victory of the 2017 World Championship.
Hamilton was satisfied with the second place and Bottas got the last place on the podium.
This is the way the race in Melbourne concluded, with seven dropouts and few overtaking’s. We will have to wait for the Chinese Grand Prix to see if the Ferrari is still up for the fight and will make an end to the absolute dominance of Mercedes. We hope that this will give us an exciting fight for the world champion.