It’s a bitter pill to swallow for Hamilton... just like last year
SEBASTIAN VETTEL made full use of the virtual safety car to sneak in front of Lewis Hamilton and hold off the frustrated champion to win Formula One’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Mercedes engine’s infamous ‘party mode’ that delivered Hamilton a blistering pole lap on Saturday could do little once Ferrari’s Vettel nosed ahead when re-entering from pit-lane midway through the race at Albert Park.
Pole-sitter Hamilton had appeared set to coast to victory with a clear pace advantage but the race turned on its head with the safety car, which was called after Romain Grosjean’s Haas failed and rolled to a stop at turn two.
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. Four-times world champion Vettel claimed a 48th overall win and his third in Melbourne following his victories at Albert Park last year and in 2011.
“It was needless to say we got a bit lucky with the timing of the safety car,” the German, who had started from third place and inherited the lead when Hamilton and Raikkonen had pitted earlier in the race, told reporters.
“It’s not the easiest track to pass.”
For Hamilton, the result was a bitter pill to swallow and had echoes of last year’s race.
Vettel also managed to re-enter in front of him from pit-lane in 2017 before burning away to victory while the pole-sitting Briton was blocked by traffic.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said his team had miscalculated the margin between the cars during the safety car period.
“We thought we had enough margin,” he told the BBC. “It must have been a software bug in the system that caused us to get it wrong. We are digging deep now to understand where we had a problem.”
Hamilton, who cockily spoke of “wiping the smile off ” Vettel’s face with his pole lap on Saturday, battled to keep positive.
“Even now I don’t understand what’s happened,” the 33-year-old told reporters. “I did everything I believe I was supposed to do.”
After the pit-lane setback, Hamilton drove hard to reel in Vettel and battled back after taking a slide at a corner that blew out the lead to nearly three seconds.
But he finally waved the white flag in the closing laps to preserve the car for future races.
Twice world champion Fernando Alonso finished fifth for McLaren in the team’s first race with Renault power, equalling their best result in three dreary years with previous engine suppliers Honda.
Red Bull’s Dutch wunderkind Max Verstappen finished sixth after suffering a full 360-degree spin on the 10th lap that put him out of the running.
Hamilton’s team mate Valtteri Bottas finished eighth after starting 15th, having taken a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after a heavy crash during qualifying.
A weekend that begun brightly for Haas with a strong qualifying turned sour during the race when Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen ground to a halt with reliability issues before the halfway mark.
They were among five cars that failed to finish the eventful opener, including Williams’ Russian debutant Sergey Sirotkin. – Reuters THE TITANS picked up their second trophy of the season when they rolled to a four-wicket win against the Knights in the Sunfoil Series yesterday. It was the fifth time the franchise has won the country’s premier first-class competition outright.
Coach Mark Boucher and Heinrich Klaasen both pointed to a stern heartto-heart between players and coaches following a dramatic defeat to the Warriors in East London three weeks ago as a key moment in the team’s season.
“There are characters in (our) dressing-room who, even if they are not in the right space, they are nice and honest, we had a very, very important chat after the Warriors game in the dressing-room. We were man enough to admit the mistakes we were making, not just as a cricket team, but as individuals, getting in each other’s space – which can happen towards the end of a season – but we swore to ourselves that we would change it, which is exactly what we did,” said Boucher.
Coming into the final round of matches, the Titans were one of four teams in with a chance of winning the four-day competition, with their opponents at Centurion, the defending champions, another of those candidates.
Having lost two days to rain, the two captains, Klaasen, and Rudi Second agreed to limit their teams’ respective first innings to 40 overs a side to create time. The Titans forced the issue particularly with the bat, pounding 269/3 in 40 overs to add 3.38 batting points to the three points they picked up for bowling.
Yesterday, the tension ramped up as the Titans, having established a 100-run lead on the first innings, then sought to limit the Knights.
Chris Morris produced an inspired spell from the West Lane End after lunch to break an irritating seventh wicket stand between Second (76) and Shadley van Schalkwyk (29) that not only threatened to add runs the Titans didn’t want to chase but use up time too. Morris picked up both their wickets in one over however, and the remainder of the Knights order folded leaving the hosts 110 runs to win.
Morris finished with 6/55 from 17 overs while Malusi Siboto deserves credit for another excellent performance picking up 3/43.
Although not a big target, there were some nervy moments as the clouds rolled in and the light faded, and the last two batsmen, Morris and Shaun von Berg were instructed to sprint to the centre – in the latter’s case so rushed was Von Berg that he forgot his helmet.
It proved no bother though as he clipped Marchant de Lange through midwicket for four to secure a four-wicket win.
In Durban, the Warriors, who topped the table coming into the final round, were victims of the weather with insufficient time available to push for a win. Nevertheless they earned a substantial haul of bonus points – 8.40 – to make the Titans a little nervous. Ultimately, the two teams were separated by just 1.52 points.
In Potchefstroom, the Cape Cobras, the other team in contention in the final round of the competition lost by nine wickets to an inspired Highveld Lions team who chased down 258 in just 40 overs with both openers; Stephen Cook and Reeza Hendricks making hundreds.
Once that result came through to the Titans dressing-room, the drinks were hauled out of the fridge and the celebrations could begin properly.
This victory further underlined the Titans’ dominance of the domestic game.