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 11th. 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