Vettel begins as he means to go on
THE MOTORSPORT LAP/ It was an interesting start to the Formula One season in Melbourne, Australia
The opening race of the 2017 Formula One (F1) season took place in Melbourne this past weekend where Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) romped to first place ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes).
Vettel’s victory marks the Italian team’s first race win since 2015 in Singapore. His performance, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Hamilton, seems to be in line with the initial testing season where his team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, set the fastest time. Raikkonen only managed to finish in fourth on race day.
If anything, this could be a prelude of the Ferrari team finally finding its mojo. We will see how things fare at the next race in Shanghai, China on April 9.
It was also the start of the MotoGP season in Qatar where Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha) finished first ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha). Moto2 saw Franco Morbidelli (0,0 Marc VDS Kalex) taking the honours ahead of Thomas Luthi (Carxpert Interwetten Kalex). Third went to Takaaki Nakagami (Honda Team Asia Kalex). SA’s golden boy, Brad Binder, finished in 20th on his debut in Moto2.
Meanwhile in Moto3, the victor was Joan Mir (Leopard Racing Honda) who finished ahead of John McPhee (British Talent Team Honda) and Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Honda).
The 2017 Extreme Festival visited Cape Town to entertain a large crowd at the Killarney circuit. The day’s top billing belonged to the Sasol Global Touring Car (GTC) brigade, where the Sasol BMW team’s Gennaro Bonafede reigned supreme. Bonafede gave notice of his winning intentions on Friday afternoon, when he set the quickest lap times during the official qualifying session.
He went on to dominate both of Saturday’s races in the BMW, finishing ahead of Simon Moss (Engen Xtreme Audi) and Johan Fourie (EPS Couriers BMW) on both occasions.
The closest confrontations happened in the GTC2 class, where Keagan Masters (VW Motorsport Golf) took a narrow opening race win over Trevor Bland (TB VW Golf) and Mandla Mdakane (VW Motorsport Golf). Masters and Bland again took the two top places in race two, but Mdakane was disqualified for a technical infringement, leaving Charl Smalberger (Indy Oil VW Golf) in third.
Veteran racer Devin Robertson (Payen Polo) returned to the Engen Volkswagen Cup arena for a once-off drive — and promptly won the day’s opening race. He was chased to the flag by Shaun la Reservee (Alpine Motors Polo) and Juan Gerber (Glasfit Polo). La Reservee took the victory, followed by Clinton Bezuidenhout (Glyco Polo) and Tasmin Pepper (Campos Transport Polo).