2015 Season

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F1 2015: Australian Grand Prix Race Recap

Lewis Hamilton won the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, a race of attrition both before and after lights out. Though plenty of daring moves occurred in the early laps, especially as rookies took the fight to more experienced drivers, the final laps were marked mainly by marking time between the Mercedes teammates and impossible dreaming from fans for points for Jenson Button.

Nico Rosberg held steady in second through the entire race, with the Mercedes drivers finishing thirty seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third, a podium for his first race with Ferrari. An incident on the first lap between Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Nasr, and Pastor Maldonado pushed the Venezuelan into the wall and brought out the Safety Car. The former two drivers continued on with minimal damage, but it ended Maldonado’s race. His teammate Romain Grosjean pitted, only to retire after a slow start. Max Verstappen and Raikkonen also retired. The rookie’s Toro Rosso stopped while he sat in the points while the Finn suffered a series of pit stop missteps that resulted in an improperly attached left rear.

Only fifteen cars started at Albert Park, with neither Manor having turned a wheel all weekend, and Valtteri Bottas deemed unfit to race with an annular tear in his lower back. He failed escape tests on the morning of the race. Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren failed with a puff of smoke on his sighting lap. He hopped out and left the car on the side of the track. Daniil Kvyat ran wide through a gravel trap on his own sighting lap, then also pulled to the side and left his Red Bull for the marshals to retrieve. Christian Horner later indicated that fifth gear failed, and the Russian lost all power.

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F1 2015: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Recap

Lewis Hamilton {1:26.327} won pole for the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, dominating the rest of the field in a display of Mercedes speed. Teammate Nico Rosberg qualified second fastest with a sloppy  first lap losing the German time in the final session of qualifying and only one run at pole. Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top six qualifiers.

Q2 proved to be a fight between sister teams Red Bull and Toro Rosso, as one driver from each moved on to Q2. Home favorite Daniel Ricciardo did so to qualify seventh, while teammate Daniil Kvyat managed only thirteenth. Carlos Sainz would qualify eighth, while Max Verstappen will start twelfth. In perhaps the most disappointing results, Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen dueled between themselves for an all McLaren back row. Manor did not participate in the qualifying sessions, and appeared unlikely to compete in the Grand Prix, running into trouble on many levels.

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