Australian Grand Prix Tag

Sebastian Vettel took his and Ferrari’s first win the Singapore Grand Prix of 2015 beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to Australian Grand Prix victory after a strategic slip by the champions allowed Vettel to inherit the lead midway through the race at Albert Park. Pole sitter Hamilton was in control of proceedings ahead of Vettel until his first pit stop on lap 17. After taking on soft tyres, the three-time champion emerged behind the slower Red Bull of Max Verstappen, as Vettel took the lead. Hamilton could findRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo will start the Australian Grand Prix from 15th position after being handed a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. The 27-year-old Aussie spun in Turn 14 during Q3 on Saturday and backed his RB13 into the barrier, causing significant damage to the rear. Since he didn’t officially turn a lap during the session, Ricciardo was previously set to start the race from 10th. The penalty pushes Force India’s Sergio Perez up to 10th and slid Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, EstebanRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Jolyon Palmer has called out Renault after a rough Saturday came to a halt after a last place result in qualifying for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The 26-year-old Brit took blame for his crash in second practice on Friday, which forced the team to rebuild the R.S.17. However, Palmer struggled with pace in FP3, ending the session 19th before the day worsened in qualifying. With a lap at 1 minute, 28.244 seconds, Palmer was well over a second off the next slowest car, which wasRead More

Lewis Hamilton took the first pole position of the new Formula One season, edging Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to take his sixth Australian Grand Prix pole by three tenths of a second. Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo crashed out, however, hitting the wall early in the final part of qualifying. The Red Bull driver is set to start tomorrow’s race in P10. Hamilton set the pace in Q1, claiming top spot 10 minutes into the session with a time of 1:24.191. That was good enough to keepRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Formula 1 rookie Lance Stroll will take a five-place grid penalty after his FW40 required a gearbox change due to a crash in final practice. The 18-year-old Canadian lost control of his car on the exit of Turn 10. The backend made the initial contact with the wall, causing damage to the rear chassis, front wing and front suspension. The crash came towards the end of FP3, bringing out the red flag before ultimately sidelining the remainder of the session. Stroll was the subject of aRead More

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest ever lap of Albert Park to top the FP3 timesheet in Melbourne, ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton. The session ended early when Lance Stroll crashed out with ten minutes left on the clock. After a slow start to the weekend, Ferrari ramped up the pace in final practice, with Vettel and team-mate Kimi Räikkönen making the running from early on. The German set the early pace but with 25 minutes remaining Räikkönen vaulted to the top of the order. His run onRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Pascal Wehrlein has been ruled out for the remainder of the weekend for the Australian Grand Prix following concerns in Friday’s two practice sessions. The 22-year-old German was injured in a crash during the Race of Champions event in Miami in January, which forced him to miss part of preseason testing in Barcelona. The 2015 DTM champion, Wehrlein took himself out of the car for the remainder of the weekend due to concerns over his fitness level. “My fitness level is not as it should beRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor If Formula One’s new cars fail to live up to their considerable hype Ross Brawn is ready to step in and save the day. The new cars are so far fulfilling their design objectives of being far faster and more aggressive looking than their predecessors. They are some of the most attractive cars F1 has had in some time and in Free Practice 2 Lewis Hamilton lapped quicker than Michael Schumacher’s 2004 race lap record and came within one tenth of the outright lap record SebastianRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Honda are aiming to bring an updated engine with increased power levels McLaren, with some positive gains made on the reliability front. Fernando Alonso ran a relatively trouble free day on Friday, finishing 12th in the second practice for the Australian Grand Prix. McLaren looked obviously down on horsepower to their competitors, but Honda revealed that work is being done to ensure a better power unit is in the plans, with the aim to bring is before June. Teams are set at moving to their secondRead More

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton again went quickest at the Albert Park Circuit as he beat Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to top spot in the second practice session for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. Hamilton had claimed P1 in the first practice session of the new F1 season, running just over half a second clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and the three-time champion’s late afternoon margin over Vettel was similar, with the German being eclipsed by 0.547s. Hamilton’s best time of the session, a lap of 1:23.620 was over four seconds quickerRead More