Abandoned starts, first corner mayhem and post race controversy. Yes, F1 is back.
There was a lot of buzz surrounding the build up to this years Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix with may expecting a large part of the paddock to struggle with reliability as they subjected their new power units to race conditions for the first time this year.
Surprisingly only Chatham and Lotus, both running Renault power units, failed to have both of their cars finish the race with most teams finishing with at least one car out inn track.
The race itself however started rough with with an abandoned start caused by the system failure of Jules Bianchi’s Marussia, resulting an extra parade lap and arguably contributed to the rear break failure bringing about the first corner crash of Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi into the rear of Felipe Massa’s Wiliams, taking both cars out of the race.
Meanwhile the resulting yellow period saw the retirement of race favourite Lewis Hamilton who’s Mercedes had been strong all weekend and soon lead to the retirement of the current work champion Sebastian Vettel.
However despite the messy start the reach soon took shape and did not disappoint. Though the lead of Nico Rosberg remained unchanged throughout the race the star of the day was rookie driver Kevin Magnussen, in his debut Formula One race, who brought his McLaren home in third behind Daniel Ricciardo in second and team mate Jenson Button in forth.
Unfortunately for Red Bull and Ricciardo, only four hours after bringing home a car, that had hardly made any test laps, in an amazing second place and becoming the first Aussie on the podium in Melbourne, the FIA announced his disqualification from the race due to the car exceeding the fuel flow allowed (100Kg/Hr) over the race period.
Though Red Bull are appealing this decision, citing inconsistencies in the fuel flow meters fitted by the FIA though out the paddock over the weekend as the likely cause of the excessive readings, The placings of the race have been officially adjusted to move both McLaren’s onto the podium giving them an even greater lead in the constructors points at this early stage of the championship.
The next race will be held in Malaysia in two weeks time.
Results
1. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 57 laps 1hr 32m 58.710s
2. Kevin Magnussen Denmark McLaren-Mercedes +00m 26.7s
3. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 30.0s
4. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 35.2s
5. Valtteri Bottas Finland Williams-Mercedes +00m 47.6s
6. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Force India-Mercedes +00m 50.7s
7. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 57.6s
8. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Renault +01m 00.4s
9. Daniil Kvyat Russia Toro Rosso-Renault +01m 03.5s
10. Sergio Perez Mexico Force India-Mercedes +01m 25.9s
11. Adrian Sutil Germany Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
12. Esteban Gutierrez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
13. Max Chilton Briton Marussia-Ferrari +2 laps
14. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Ferrari +8 laps
Rtd Romain Grosjean France Lotus-Renault 43 laps completed
Rtd Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Lotus-Renault 29 laps completed
Rtd Marcus Ericsson Sweden Caterham-Renault 27 laps completed
Rtd Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 4 laps completed
Rtd Lewis Hamilton Britain Mercedes-Mercedes 3 laps completed
Rtd Felipe Massa Brazil Williams-Mercedes 0 laps completed
Rtd Kamui Kobayashi Japan Caterham-Renault 0 laps completed
Dsq Daniel Ricciardo Australia Red Bull-Renault
Fastest lap:
Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 1m 32.478s lap 19
all results unofficial. Results and images via: Crash.net
