Australian Grand Prix 2015: Winners and Losers from Season-Opener
Formula One returned on Sunday with the season-opening 2015 Australian Grand Prix, and much of what we witnessed was very much expected.
Mercedes dominated the whole weekend and secured an easy one-two finish. A safe distance behind them, a tight battle between a Williams and a Ferrari was decided in the red car's favour, with Sebastian Vettel snatching a podium on his debut for the Scuderia.
But not everyone's race went as predicted. Lotus were packing up their stall after just one lap as both cars retired, while Sauber exceeded all expectations. Felipe Nasr's stunning debut secured 10 valuable points for the Swiss team—10 more than they managed in the entire 2014 campaign.
Here are the main winners and losers from the first race of the year.
Winners: Sauber
1 of 6
Wow. Did anyone see that one coming?
After a pointless 2014 and a chaotic start to the weekend as the Giedo van der Garde court case threatened to overshadow the race, Sauber made a start to 2015 they could only have dreamed of.
Felipe Nasr came home in a brilliant fifth, while Marcus Ericsson's late move on Carlos Sainz Jr. gave him ninth and his first-ever points in F1.
It's true that a couple of cars were taken out of the equation (Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, for example), but for the most part Sauber earned their positions on pace alone.
This sort of display highlights exactly why F1 needs the smaller teams. A surprise or two can turn a dismal race into one that is almost worth watching, and Sauber, more than anyone, can take credit for making Australia an OK season-opener.
Losers: Lotus
2 of 6
After getting both cars into the final part of qualifying, Lotus will have been looking forward to challenging for some decent points in Sunday's race.
Unfortunately for them, it didn't work out that way—and there was nothing they could do about it. Things started to go badly barely 15 seconds into the race when Pastor Maldonado went into the barriers at the second corner.
The much-maligned Venezuelan seems to find the wall more frequently than most, but he was an entirely innocent party on this occasion. Felipe Nasr, his own line compromised by Kimi Raikkonen, tagged Maldonado's rear left and sent him into a spin.
Romain Grosjean suffered a loss of power on the formation lap and never really got going. He was slow off the grid and pulled into the pits after just a single tour to end a miserable weekend for Lotus.
Winners: Mercedes
3 of 6
We knew Mercedes would be ahead, but Lewis Hamilton's pole lap was still something of a shock. Felipe Massa, the quickest non-W06, was 1.391 seconds slower.
The advantage wasn't as great in the race, but it's unlikely Mercedes were truly pushing. Nico Rosberg remained within a few seconds of Hamilton all race long; the best of the rest was more than half a minute down the road.
"That's the 30th #F1 victory for the Silver Arrows! We're mega proud to be adding to that heritage - great job everyone! #AusGP #F1DownUnder
— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) March 15, 2015"
The Germans look set for another year of dominance and are likely to be tweeting about their 45th race win in October.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Losers: McLaren
4 of 6
The writing was on the wall after practice, and when qualifying came around, the team's fears were confirmed. Honda turned the engines down to ensure better reliability, and the two underpowered McLarens comfortably locked out the back row.
For a team with McLaren's history and heritage, it was embarrassing, and the situation got worse before Sunday's race had even begun.
Kevin Magnussen's MP4-30 didn't even make the start—the supposedly more reliable, de-tuned Honda in its rear expired in spectacular fashion as the Dane made his way to the grid.
Jenson Button somehow made it to the finish and deserves credit for his performance, but he was by far the slowest car in the race. After a fun battle with Sergio Perez, he was 11th—the only driver who saw the chequered flag yet failed to score a point.
Winners: Ferrari
5 of 6
Ferrari didn't have a prayer of scoring a podium on dry-weather pace in 2014. The F14-T was at best the fourth-best car, but its successor already seems a huge improvement.
Sebastian Vettel marked his debut for the Scuderia with a well-earned third place after surviving a hairy moment at the start. Hard but fair in his duel with Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner, he was a little fortunate to escape unscathed and ran in fourth early on.
But luck had nothing to do with the impressive string of laps he put in to "overcut" Felipe Massa at the pit-stop round.
Raikkonen's race was one disaster after another, culminating in his retirement after a botched pit stop. He had good pace, though, so with the rest of the team he will head to Malaysia in a positive frame of mind.
Losers: Red Bull
6 of 6
For a team expected to be somewhere close to the Williams/Ferrari battle to be best of the rest, Australia was a real disappointment. Red Bull had a terrible weekend.
Star driver and local hero Daniel Ricciardo could only qualify seventh, just two-tenths of a second quicker than debutant Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr. Daniil Kvyat was behind both the sister team's cars in 13th.
It got worse for the Russian as he made his way to the grid, with his RB11 grinding to a halt on his out-lap. Ricciardo did at least take the start and later the chequered flag, but he was only sixth—a lap down on the Mercedes' and beaten on merit by a Sauber.
A glimmer of hope is that, per ESPN, engine supplier Renault have spent fewer upgrade tokens than any other team. They have 12 left and will need every one if they want to close the gap to the teams ahead.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
