2018 Australian F1 GP: Vettel springs a surprise and wins the season's opening race, Alonso fifth

After qualifying for the 2018 Australian F1 GP, Lewis Hamilton told the press conference that he had wiped the smile off his rivals’ faces. But in the race at Albert Park, it was the British driver who lost his smile, as he could not secure victory and watched from behind as the glory in Melbourne went to Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton had the better race pace and demonstrated it during the first half of the race, leading the pack of single-seaters comfortably. But everything began to change when the pit stops started and, especially, when both Haas cars had to retire. With the safety car on track due to a Grosjean mechanic, Ferrari played the strategy well and put Vettel in first place. Alonso also played his cards well, moving up to fifth ahead of Max Verstappen.

Hamilton tried to overtake Vettel but pushed too hard and made a mistake that definitively cost him any chance of catching the German. And so, as in 2017, Vettel climbed to the top step of the podium at Albert Park and takes the first spot in the championship, this time with a big smile on his face.

Behind the two champions there were some fine battles. For example, for third place between Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian drove a great race after starting three places further back due to a penalty, as he fought the Finn for third for a while but ended up frustrated by the tight corners of the Albert Park circuit.

However, the battle that kept us on tenterhooks was Fernando Alonso’s defence of fifth position against Max Verstappen. The Spanish driver managed to stop the Red Bull driver from passing him, securing a fifth place that almost tastes like a victory after the painful previous season. Rightly so, Alonso was named the best driver of the 2018 Australian F1 GP.

The other Spanish representative, Carlos Sainz, did not have his best day and even suffered physical problems due to a fault in the hydration system that all drivers have in their single-seaters. Even so, the Spaniard finished in tenth place, scoring his first point.

The full race results at Albert Park were as follows:

As we said earlier, Vettel is the championship leader with 25 points, ahead of Lewis Hamilton on 20. The 2018 F1 World Championship has just begun and has already made it clear that it will not be a walk in the park for the driver from Mercedes, who will have to give more on track and from his team at the pit wall if he does not want to see his smile taken away again at the next round of the championship, the Bahrain GP, on April 6, 7 and 8.