Vettel wins first race of the season at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix[+video]

Even though Lewis Hamilton took pole position yesterday, it was Ferrari who stormed to first place in Australia as Sebastian Vettel took advantage of having a longer pit stop when the virtual safety car was called. This victory puts Vettel in the same ranks as Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Lewis Hamilton who have achieved 100 podiums.

Kimi Raikkonen finished in 3rd place just ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. The saddest part of the race was for Haas as both drivers had to retire when they were in fourth and fifth place due to a mechanical fault with the wheel gun.

 

Some interesting facts about the race from Formula1.com

• As well as taking his second straight victory in Melbourne, Sebastian Vettel became just third man in F1 history to lead 3,000 laps in his career, after Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton
• The German also scored his 100^th F1 podium, becoming just the fourth driver to reach that milestone
• Vettel’s ninth win in 60 starts for Ferrari equals Kimi Raikkonen’s tally for the team over 131 starts
• For the fourth time in five years, Lewis Hamilton failed to convert an Australian pole into victory. From seven poles in Melbourne, the Briton has two wins
• McLaren scored points for the first time in Melbourne since 2014. Alonso’s fifth place matched his best result in three years with Honda power, while the team’s tally of 12 points also matched the best they ever achieved with the
• Japanese manufacturer over the same period
• Haas had their second consecutive double DNF in Australia, while Force India failed to score points in Melbourne for the first time since 2009

Here are the final standings from the race.

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	FERRARI	58	1:29:33.283	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	58	+5.036s	18
3	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FERRARI	58	+6.309s	15
4	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	58	+7.069s	12
5	14	Fernando Alonso	MCLAREN RENAULT	58	+27.886s	10
6	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER	58	+28.945s	8
7	27	Nico Hulkenberg	RENAULT	58	+32.671s	6
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	58	+34.339s	4
9	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	MCLAREN RENAULT	58	+34.921s	2
10	55	Carlos Sainz	RENAULT	58	+45.722s	1
11	11	Sergio Perez	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	58	+46.817s	0
12	31	Esteban Ocon	FORCE INDIA MERCEDES	58	+60.278s	0
13	16	Charles Leclerc	SAUBER FERRARI	58	+75.759s	0
14	18	Lance Stroll	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	58	+78.288s	0
15	28	Brendon Hartley	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	57	+1 lap	0
NC	8	Romain Grosjean	HAAS FERRARI	24	DNF	0
NC	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	22	DNF	0
NC	10	Pierre Gasly	SCUDERIA TORO ROSSO HONDA	13	DNF	0
NC	9	Marcus Ericsson	SAUBER FERRARI	5	DNF	0
NC	35	Sergey Sirotkin	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	4	DNF	0