Opportunistic Vettel uses virtual safety car to steal victory
MELBOURNE: Sebastian Vettel made full use of the virtual safety car to sneak in front of Lewis Hamilton midway through the race before the German held off the frustrated Briton to win the seasonopening Australian Grand Prix yesterday.
The Mercedes engine’s infamous ‘‘party mode’’ that delivered Hamilton a record seventh pole position in the Australian race on Saturday could do little once Ferrari’s Vettel had nosed ahead of him after he reentered from the pit lane.
In another bonus for Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen finished third, fending off Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and leaving the unlucky Australian still searching for a first podium in his home race.
The race turned on its head when the virtual safety car was deployed after
Romain Grosjean’s Haas rolled to a halt at turn two after 24 laps.
Vettel grabbed his chance to pit as a fuming Hamilton was forced to lower his speed, allowing the German to capitalise on being able to run faster in the pit lane as he rejoined the race just in front of the reigning champion.
In a nerveshredding duel, Vettel summoned every inch of his race craft to keep the faster Mercedes car at bay.
The tension grew steadily higher and, with 10 laps to go, Hamilton blinked, a mistake at a corner causing him to slide into the grass and blow out Vettel’s lead to nearly 3sec.
The relentless Briton doubled down the pressure, however, and within a handful of laps was again within striking distance, but Vettel gamely held on and claimed his second successive win in the Australian seasonopener.
‘‘We got a bit lucky obviously with the safety car but yeah, really enjoyed it,’’ Vettel told former teammate Mark Webber at the podium ceremony.
Twice champion Fernando Alonso finished fifth for McLaren with Red Bull’s Dutch wunderkind, Max Verstappen, finishing sixth after a full 360deg spin on the 10th lap that cost him dearly.
They were among five cars that failed to finish the eventful opener.
New Zealander Brendon Hartley spent the race at the tail of the field, eventually placing 15th.
The Toro Rosso driver at least made it to the chequered flag, placing him ahead of the five drivers who failed to finish.
However, his car was clearly down on speed compared to the big guns.
Beginning 16th on the 20strong grid, Hartley dropped to the tail early on when called into the pits for a tyre change.
From that point, he only made ground in the standings when others were forced out.
One of those, on the 15th lap, was French teammate Pierre Gasley because of engine problems.
Hartley began to get lapped at the midway point of the race and was the only driver to suffer that fate.