Nico Rosberg is once again king in Melbourne

Adding to the last three races of last season, this is the fourth consecutive F1 victory from the Mercedes German driver. He finished eight seconds ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, while FerrariFerrariItaly, 1947 > present233 models
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's Sebastian Vettel had to settle for third place.

 

The race got under way with an amazing start from Sebastian Vettel that immediatly took the command of the race, overtaking both MercedesMercedes-BenzGermany, 1924 > present197 models
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. Hamilton fell to sixth place behind the Ferraris, Rosberg and Max Verstappen and Felipe Massa. Four laps later he overtook the WilliamsWilliamsUnited Kingdom, 1977 > present37 models
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driver, but didn't manage to get close enough to Verstappen's Toro RossoToro RossoItaly, 2006 > present10 models
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, which let the leading trio pull away.

 

On the first stop tyre strategy came to franctic action with Vettel and Raikkonen going for super-softs, Rosberg for softs and Hamilton with mediums, trying to go to end of the race with just one stop.

 

However the race got a complete makeover after a scary crash which involved Alonso and Gutierrez on lap 17, which forced a red flag. Alonso hit the rear of Esteban Gutierrez's Haas and ended up slamming into the wall and then rolling violently through the gravel trap. Fortunately both drivers came out of the cars by their own foot, but the race was stopped for 20 minutes.

 

After the race restarted Raikkonen retired with a power-unit failure and Vettel didn't manage to keep the pace with his super-soft tyres and had to pit on lap 35 and handed the lead to Rosberg. Hamilton benefitted from the German and the Toro Rossos stops to move up to third and managed to overtake Ricciardo to take second place with 16 laps to go. With a 10 seconds lead, Rosberg was capable to holf on to the lead and take his 15th F1 victory.

 

Vettel still managed to finish third and on the last laps still had a chance to challenge to second place after a small mistake from Hamilton got him very close to the reinging world champion. However the Brit managed to keep the runner-up spot with the Ferrari driver locking up and driving onto the grass with two laps to go.

 

Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth in his Red BullRed BullAustria, 2004 > present12 models
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, followed by Massa. Romain Grosjean scored the first points for Haas, with the team becoming the first to do so on the debut since Mika Salo for ToyotaToyotaJapan, 1937 > present155 models
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back in 2002. The French benefited from the red flag, making his only tyre change on that occasion, which meant he didn't pit during the race.

 

Force IndiaForce IndiaIndia, 2007 > present8 models
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's Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh and William's Valtteri Bottas in eighth. Both drivers were unable to overtake Grosjean, although the were behind his Haas for half the race.

 

The two Toro RossosToro RossoItaly, 2006 > present10 models
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finished on the last scorable places.

 

Check the Driver's and Consctructor's World Championship standings here.