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Australian GP driver ratings

Who starred Down Under, who had a shocker and who has plenty of work to do in the year ahead...

The finger is back. Eighteen months and 28 races after claiming his third win as a Ferrari driver in Singapore in a 2015 season that was supposed to be a gateway to a 2016 title tilt, Sebastian Vettel's raised single digit returned in joyous post-race scenes in Melbourne. Ferrari beat Mercedes, Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton, and they beat them fair and square.

This was the four-time champion at his very best. Vettel lost his way against team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in qualifying in particular in the second half of last season but this weekend he was a class apart: splitting the Mercedes' on the grid and then judging his pace to perfection around the crucial pit-stop window.

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Sky F1 looks at how Mercedes lost the Australian GP after Lewis Hamilton started from pole, but had to settle for second place behind Sebastian Vettel

"Schumacher-esque" is how Martin Brundle described the harmony of team and driver in this victory-defining stage of the race and Vettel will hope that doesn't prove a one-off so to give Ferrari a chance of ending their decade-long drivers' title drought.

It's very (very) early days but Vettel and Ferrari look in the mood to continue track talking.
Rating out of ten: 9.5

Lewis Hamilton wanted a fight for the title and boy does he have it now. Things have just got very interesting indeed.

Driving-wise, Hamilton was faultless all weekend in Melbourne although whether his repeated complaints about tyre degradation were quite so wise is a moot point. To what extent did Hamilton's stress influence Mercedes' decision to pit their lead driver as early as the 17th lap? Not much, perhaps, because Hamilton reckoned the pre-race plan was to stop on lap 18 but it hardly helped.

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The collective misjudgement was an error which, allied to Ferrari's impressive pace, resulted in a defeat of almost ten seconds and relief in the final reckoning at the consolation of second place. Vettel v Hamilton really may finally be here.
Rating out of ten: 9

A podium finish marked a solid if unspectacular Mercedes debut for Valtteri Bottas. The Finn bounced back from a tough Friday in which he was half a second behind Hamilton to steadily close the gap over the weekend. Indeed, he was 0.293 seconds off Hamilton in qualifying - a narrower margin than his predecessor Nico Rosberg ever managed around Albert Park - while he was the fastest of the front-runners for much of the second half of Sunday's race.

"Third is not the best result but there is much more to come" was Bottas' assessment. As he gets more accustomed to his new car, he'll surely have Hamilton keeping a close eye over his shoulder.
Rating out of ten: 8

Where was Kimi Raikkonen in Australia? While Vettel excelled and then triumphed in the sister Ferrari, Raikkonen was a disappointingly peripheral figure, unable to match his team-mate's pace in either qualifying or the race.

China will be important for revealing whether Raikkonen's Australia anonymity was another sign of decline or merely an early example of how fickle car set-up could be in 2017.
Rating out of ten: 5

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 24:  Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Red Bull Racing prepares in the garage  during practice for the Australian Formula One

F1's new era wasn't supposed to start like this for Red Bull but Max Verstappen can go away from Melbourne content he got everything out of his RB13, even if a look at the final race timesheet made for sobering reading.

With team-mate Daniel Ricciardo hit by a succession of blows - some self-inflicted, some not - from Q3 onwards, Verstappen drove a steady race and even gave Raikkonen something to think about at the very first corner, and then in the closing stages of the race when the Dutchman's supersofts began to offer some more promising speed. "He didn't put a wheel wrong all afternoon and drove a very mature race," was team boss Christian Horner's well-put assessment.

Verstappen will certainly have more headline-grabbing weekends than this in 2017.
Rating out of ten: 7.5

Felipe Massa ensured Williams were best of the rest on his 'comeback' race following his short-lived retirement.

The Brazilian kept out of trouble to come home sixth and was the final car to avoid being lapped by the front-runners. He comfortably outperformed rookie team-mate Lance Stroll and with the midfield battle looking closer than ever, his experience will be key to regular point finishes.
Rating out of ten: 8

Starting 2017 in 2016 style, Sergio Perez picked up as much as could have been expected in Australia with seventh place. His half-second defeat of Esteban Ocon in qualifying was his weekend's high point, but the intrigue was Force India's Sunday proximity to Williams and, by association, Red Bull. The potential of more giantkilling acts is still there.
Rating out of ten: 8

Starting eighth and finishing eighth, it was a largely uneventful race for Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso. He will take heart from out-qualifying team-mate Daniil Kvyat, although he was made to step aside for the quicker Russian on race day as he hunted down those ahead. However, he reclaimed the position when Kvyat was forced into his stop.
Rating out of ten: 7.5

Sometimes there's just no justice in the end result. While the listings in the record books will indicate Daniil Kvyat was out-performed by his team-mate in Australia, this was arguably the Russian's best performance for Toro Rosso.

Ahead of Sainz when an engine fault meant he had to take an extra stop, seventh was in his sights before that - and would have been no more than he deserved.
Rating out of ten: 8

Moving up from 13th to claim a point on his debut for Force India - and the first top 10 of his F1 career - represented a solid start for Esteban Ocon in Australia. The Frenchman showed his racing craft to storm past Fernando Alonso to claim 10th with five laps remaining while holding off Nico Hulkenberg, his predecessor, into Turn One to retain the position.

As he moves to more familiar circuits, the 20-year-old will look to close the gap to team-mate Sergio Perez.
Rating out of ten: 7.5

Only fine margins denied Nico Hulkenberg a point-scoring Renault debut in Australia on an impressive opening weekend for his new team. One tenth outside of a Q3 position on Saturday, Hulkenberg was then pipped to 10th place by Ocon by one second on Sunday after they both overcame a dogged Fernando Alonso in one of the race's most exciting moments down the pit straight.

The Renault of 2017 is a big step forward over the Renault of 2016 and Hulkenberg can be pleased with the early signs, even if a first points finish will have to wait for at least another fortnight.
Rating out of ten: 7

Last-minute 'super subs' don't always produce the goods in F1 but Ferrari reserve Antonio Giovinazzi certainly delivered a commendable performance after being called up by Sauber on Saturday morning when Pascal Wehrlein dropped out.

Although he had driven the C36 at the first test in the place of the then-convalescing German, coming within 0.2s of making Q2, and nearly outqualifying team-mate Marcus Ericsson on his F1 debut, was certainly above the call of duty. Finishing the race, and beating the McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne, capped a fine showing.

Just when will we see the Italian in F1 full-time?
Rating out of ten: 8.5

A tough weekend for Stoffel Vandoorne as he was last of the cars to finish in 13th but McLaren's ongoing reliability problems limited the Belgian's opportunities to display his full potential.

Vandoorne suffered power problems early in the race and was forced into an unscheduled pit stop in order to reboot his dashboard which was showing blank.

His car also suffered a water leak in qualifying, limiting him to one lap in which he was unable to get as much out of the car as Fernando Alonso and was knocked out in Q1
Rating out of ten: 5

Did not finish

Fernando Alonso was running in the points for much of the race but was overtaken by Ocon and Hulkenberg in the closing stages of the race before retiring. "In terms of driving, I probably had one of my very best races today," said Alonso.
Rating out of ten: 9.5

After failing to reach Q2, Kevin Magnussen hit trouble on the very first lap of the race when he lost control of his Haas car and veered into Marcus Ericsson's Sauber.
Rating out of ten: 4

A mixed debut weekend for Lance Stroll. After losing momentum with his accident in Practice Three, the youngster gained several places at the start but then suffered brake issues to bring his first F1 race to an early end.
Rating out of ten: 6.5

The home race from hell for Daniel Ricciardo. After crashing in qualifying, Ricciardo suffered a gearbox glitch before the race, eventually began the grand prix from the pitlane and a lap down, and then took an early bath when his RB13's engine expired.
Rating out of ten: 5

Making Q2 was a first-race bonus, but Marcus Ericsson's race was effectively over inside three corners when he was dumped into the gravel by an over-eager Kevin Magnussen. A later hydraulic fault linked to that lap-one damage eventually stopped the car.
Rating out of ten: 6

Outspoken in his criticism of his Renault car after qualifying last, Jolyon Palmer's weekend barely improved on race day when he was beset by brake failures and its early end was something of a blessing.
Rating out of ten: 4

A real shame for Romain Grosjean. After his starring role in qualifying to take sixth, he was first driver to retire from the race in Australia.
Rating out of ten: 8

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