Who mastered Melbourne and who had an F1 2019 opener to forget? Check out the first driver ratings of the new season...
Monday 18 March 2019 14:34, UK
What a performance, Valtteri Bottas.
Did anybody need this opening victory more? After missing out on a win during the whole of 2018, the Finn has faced questions about his Mercedes future and was often an afterthought in pre-season title predictions - perhaps that's the reason for his expletive-laden post-race radio message - but he retaliated in style in Melbourne with, in his words, "the best race of my life".
Bottas was strong in qualifying, on provisional pole before just failing to match his team-mate's final lap, before acing his start in the race and storming to an advantage of more than 20 seconds at the chequered flag. It doesn't get much more dominant than that.
"When he came back from the winter he said, 'I'm back'." noted Mercedes boss Toto Wolff on his driver's resurgence.
On another one-year contract, Bottas surely has to be a contender in the championship battle this year to keep his seat. In this form, that's a strong possibility.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
It was all going so well for Lewis Hamilton. Fastest in all three practice sessions, on pole position - it looked like the world champion was starting the new season just like he finished 2018. But then Sunday happened. That he didn't keep up with Bottas off the line isn't a huge surprise in itself, but the immediate 0.5s-per-lap margin after that certainly was.
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Mercedes diagnosed a problem with Hamilton's car after the race and while it is unclear just how much of an issue it was and how much time he was losing, Lewis certainly wasn't comfortable in the car, agitated throughout on team radio. Hamilton offered no excuses, while Sky F1's Paul Di Resta declared: "I don't remember when we last saw Lewis Hamilton beaten fair and square like this."
Hamilton claims he always had his rivals covered but it's alarming to hear a five-time world champion insist a race is "done and dusted" after losing out into Turn One. Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, added: "I think he was probably bored and not happy because he lost the start." You'd expect that motivation to ramp up again once we arrive in Bahrain.
Rating out of ten: 8
Expecting Mercedes and Ferrari to be too quick, Red Bull weren't predicting a podium in their first race with Honda engines. But maybe they should have. Max Verstappen is that good.
Not only did Verstappen out-qualify a Ferrari on Saturday, the Dutchman then sensationally overtook Vettel in the race before closing up to within a second of Hamilton's Mercedes. What was even more striking was that Verstappen was carrying this new partnership alone, with his team-mate well down the field. He can handle that pressure.
It's incredibly impressive to see how much he has improved in the last year, adding a calm head and remarkable consistency to undoubted talent and speed. If Verstappen continues to perform race after race in 2019, and Honda continue their upwards trajectory, Red Bull are a force.
Rating out of ten: 9.5
The pre-race favourites were thrashed in Melbourne. What a miserable weekend for Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel made his mistakes last year, but his team must take the blame here. Indeed, you suspect Vettel extracted the maximum out of this under-performing package as he beat his new team-mate in qualifying - where he was still 0.7s off the Mercedes - and in the first half of the race as he kept up with Hamilton. But then Vettel started to tread water.
Ferrari haven't revealed a problem with his car just yet, but Vettel was losing a second-a-lap to his rivals as he lacked balance on the medium tyre. He couldn't compete with Verstappen and in the end, he was lucky Ferrari opted to hold the positions of their two drivers. Would they have opted for the same strategy if the Vettel-Leclerc roles were reversed?
Vettel and Ferrari have to bounce back.
Rating out of ten: 7
When Charles Leclerc pictured his Ferrari debut, he would have thought of standing on the podium and spraying champagne. Not fifth place, with a one-minute deficit to the race-winner.
Ferrari were off the pace, but this was a sloppy start to the youngster's Scuderia career. He made a mistake on his final Q3 lap in qualifying, and then nearly collided with Vettel at the start of the race before running onto the grass a few laps later and losing time to Verstappen.
"That's exactly the sort of mistake you cannot make in a frontrunning team," said Sky F1's Martin Brundle.
He was at least a few tenths slower than the rest of the top five for the majority of the afternoon, until Vettel's pace fell off a cliff. And even then Leclerc was stopped from trying to gain a place by Ferrari. There's no need to panic and his talent is clear, but Leclerc, and Ferrari, will want a big improvement in Bahrain.
Rating out of ten: 6
Haas have laid down their marker as the team to beat in midfield, led by the impressive Kevin Magnussen. Beaten by his team-mate in qualifying, the Dane promptly took sixth off Romain Grosjean into Turn One and then never looked back.
"It is crazy to think that there are other cars that are faster than this," said Magnussen's of Haas' 2019 package.
He still has that aggression on-track - showing it when forcing Nico Hulkenberg's Renault off the track - but Magnussen has displayed maturity in the last two seasons and managed this race well, finishing well clear of his nearest rival.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
Nico Hulkenberg did in Australia what Nico Hulkenberg normally does: a very solid job to put, in his own words, "solid points on the board" with the added bonus of a defeat of Daniel Ricciardo in qualifying too.
2019 could well prove a critical year for Nico in terms of where his career goes from here. Melbourne therefore amounted to a very fine start. "We can be pleased with today, it's a positive result, but it also shows we have a lot of work ahead of us," he said.
Rating out of ten: 8
So that's why Kimi Raikkonen opted to prolong his F1 career with Alfa Romeo - and why Alfa opted to prolong Kimi's F1 tenure.
The Finn was verging on excellent in Australia, a racing mile of his young team-mate in qualifying and neat and tidy in the race to take comforting points. Kimi being Kimi downplayed it all afterwards, complaining of a comprised race strategy after a visor tear-off flew into a braking duct, but this was a very satisfying result all-round.
Rating out of ten: 8.5
New team but a touch of the old from Lance Stroll as he followed a modest effort in qualifying with an impressive showing on race day. The Canadian seemed to spend the entire race stuck in a fight of some description but showed plenty of race craft to bring his Racing Point home in ninth. "I am really pleased with my race today - it has been a great day at the office," he said. "But it wasn't easy."
Rating out of ten: 8
Evidence that Daniil Kvyat should never have been dropped? The Russian would have been disappointed to lose out to rookie team-mate Alex Albon on Saturday but shone in the race - only making one small error when attacking Stroll - before admirably keeping Gasly at bay. Perhaps he thinks he should be the one in that Red Bull.
Rating out of ten: 8
A Red Bull debut to forget for Pierre Gasly. He was unlucky to be knocked out so early in qualifying due to Red Bull's strategy - though Verstappen still comfortably made it through Q1 - and while fighting through the pack at a tight Albert Park circuit is certainly not ideal, the Frenchman and Red Bull would have at the very least expected some points.
"It's too early to draw conclusions," said team boss Christian Horner on whether the pressure got to Gasly. "We know that he has enough speed, and the results will come with time."
Rating out of ten: 6
Lando Norris pulled no punches in his self-assessment after finishing out of the points in Australia.
"The team gave me a good car with enough pace for me to be in the top 10 but I made a couple of mistakes which cost me any chance of scoring points," the rookie confessed. "I'm annoyed with myself as there was more potential."
But his excellence in qualifying, when he took a McLaren into the top ten for the first time since Monaco, offered plenty of encouragement.
Rating out of ten: 7.5
Sergio Perez did extremely well to make it through to Q3 on Saturday but in truth, he never appeared comfortable in his Racing Point all weekend - claiming the upgrades weren't working expected and lacking balance. Usually so strong in the race, Perez claimed it was "impossible to overtake" on Sunday and was surprisingly outshone by his new team-mate.
Rating out of ten: 6
There were teething issues - such as his crash in first practice - but this was a strong first F1 race weekend from Alex Albon. He was ahead of Kvyat in qualifying but got held up in a train of cars behind Giovinazzi's Alfa Romeo in the race, losing what he felt was a good chance of a top-10 finish. "I'm still happy with how my weekend went," said the British-born youngster. "I think we could have had points so that stings a little, but it was a good experience."
Rating out of ten: 7
The less said about Antonio Giovinazzi's weekend in Australia the better. Off the pace in qualifying, his only notable feature on race day was holding up a gaggle of cars as he limped to a rather lacklustre 15th.
Rating out of ten: 5
The shape of the conversation around the Williams team-mates is, at least in the immediate future, set grim. Cut adrift at the wrong end of the grid, Robert Kubica and George Russell will only have each other for a yardstick and genuine competition, and it was round one to Russell.
"Overall, I can be proud and pleased with myself because we went into this weekend knowing what to expect and I achieved pretty much all of my goals," he said.
But as George also added: "I am not interested in fighting Robert for last, we need to work together to make this right."
Rating out of ten: 7
When Robert Kubica dreamed of making his F1 return, it wouldn't have looked like this. Already bereft of pace after qualifying last, Kubica lost his front-wing on the first lap and ended up three laps down when the race ended.
Rating out of ten: 6
Did not finish...
A nasty case of déjà vu for Romain Grosjean as, for the second year in succession, his Australian GP weekend came a cropper due to a faulty pit-stop. "It just felt wrong," Romain reflected afterwards. "It's not been a good day." But the consolation is that the Haas looks a fast car and he does at least leave Australia 1-0 on Magnussen in qualifying.
Rating out of ten: 7.5
That must have hurt Daniel Ricciardo. After all the hype, after all the focus, the home favourite lost out to his team-mate in qualifying as neither Renault driver made it through to Q3, then lost his front-wing before Turn One on race day and retired before the grand prix had reached the halfway stage.
Everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. And Daniel's frustration was on the brink of boiling over afterwards as he said: "Bahrain will be a lot easier. It will be like a holiday week and l can prepare properly. I don't feel my preparation was where it ought to be here because l was trying to please everyone." Ouch.
Rating out of ten: 6
Carlos Sainz's weekend in Melbourne was a luckless affair. His early exit from qualifying was a result of backing off when Robert Kubica crashed and he was within five seconds of team-mate Norris when his engine blew on lap 10. "It's been a weekend to forget," he succinctly summarised. "This one hurts."
Rating out of ten: 6
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