The familiar Mercedes 1-2 winning formula comes to rule again!

The 2016 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix saw the all too familiar Mercedes winning formula  in play as the team came in first and second with Nico Rosberg and his team mate Lewis Hamilton winning the race in Melbourne. Rosberg’s victory was his second in Melbourne, coming two years after his first and 31 years after his father Keke won the very first race on Australian soil in Adelaide, said an F1 report. Rosberg has now won four successive races, his winning streak starting in Mexico in 2015. The Mercedes team has been victorious for seven straight races.

The race was dominated by Ferrari in the beginning but a mid-race stoppage after a huge accident involving Fernando Alonso resulted in Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg scoring an unlikely victory. Team mate Lewis Hamilton too recovered from a bad start to finish second. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel  came in third after 57 laps of Albert Park.

McLaren's Alonso and Haas's Esteban Gutierrez were however able to walk away from a huge crash at Turn 3 which caused the red flags to fly on lap 19. Till that moment it was Ferrari’s Vettel and Raikkonen who were leading with a one-two.

Local hero Daniel Ricciardo came in fourth for Red Bull, with Felipe Massa of Williams following and Romain Grosjean coming in sixth and giving Ameican all-new Haas team points a debut win.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, and the Toro Rosso duo of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen completed the top ten. Renault’s Jolyon Palmer narrowly missed out on a point in his maiden Grand Prix.

Following a 20-minute break to clear the debris from Alonso and Gutierrez's crash, the race restarted with Ferrari still on an aggressive two-stop strategy of using supersoft tyres.  Palmer's very convincing debut for Renault saw him finish 11^th. He managed to finish ahead of team mate Kevin Magnussen who lost time with a puncture on the opening lap but made it up when the race was red flagged and restarted.

Sergio Perez was 13th for Force India, followed by Jenson Button in 14th for McLaren. Felipe Nasr finished 15th for Sauber as team mate Marcus Ericsson retired with transmission problems, while rookie Pascal Wehrlein was the last of the classified runners in 16th.

Besides Alonso and Gutierrez, others who retired included Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat who in fact retired even before getting to the grid. Manor's Rio Haryanto went out with driveline problems and Raikkonen retired soon after the restart with apparent turbo failure.

1              NICO ROSBERG                 MERCEDES         

2              LEWIS HAMILTON            MERCEDES         

3              SEBASTIAN VETTEL          FERRARI              

4              DANIEL RICCIARDO         RED BULL RACING           

5              FELIPE MASSA                   WILLIAMS          

6              ROMAIN GROSJEAN       HAAS    

7              NICO HULKENBERG         FORCE INDIA     

8              VALTTERI BOTTAS            WILLIAMS          

9              CARLOS SAINZ                  TORO ROSSO    

10           MAX VERSTAPPEN          TORO ROSSO    

11           JOLYON PALMER              RENAULT            

12           KEVIN MAGNUSSEN       RENAULT            

13           SERGIO PEREZ                   FORCE INDIA     

14           JENSON BUTTON             MCLAREN           

15           FELIPE NASR                       SAUBER               

16           PASCAL WEHRLEIN          MANOR              

NC          MARCUS ERICSSON        SAUBER                               DNF      

NC          KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN             FERRARI                               DNF       

NC          RIO HARYANTO INA        MANOR                               DNF       

NC          ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ      HAAS                                     DNF       

NC          FERNANDO ALONSO      MCLAREN                            DNF       

NC          DANIIL KVYAT                    RED BULL RACING            DNS