Vettel wins in Australia, Hamilton second

TIL Desk Sports/ Four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel won the Australian Grand Prix for Ferrari in Melbourne on Sunday to dash Mercedes’ hopes of extending their dominance into a fourth successive season of Formula One. The German cruised to his 43rd race victory with a 9.9 second gap to Mercedes’ runner-up Lewis Hamilton, with the Briton’s new team mate, Valtteri Bottas, finishing third.

It was Vettel’s fourth win for Ferrari and his first since the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2015. That win in Singapore was also the last time Ferrari had topped the podium but Vettel’s victory at Albert Park underlined the huge leap in performance made by the team, who were encouraged by their cars’ pace and reliability in winter testing.

“It’s a long, long way ahead but for now we’re just over the moon … It was a great race, I enjoyed it,” Vettel said in a podium interview with former Red Bull team mate Mark Webber. Vettel’s 2007 championship-winning team mate Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen one behind. Vettel, who started alongside pole-sitter Hamilton, had said after qualifying he hoped for a good start to reel in Mercedes.