2015 Australian Grand Prix: A Review and Championship Standings

The 2015 Formula One Season began two weeks ago in Australia. It has taken a little while to write about it, mostly because it was such a dull race. The Mercedes team appears to be incredibly likely to dominate the year once more and, hopefully, the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will keep some interest going.  A routine one-two victory though means I don’t hold out much hope for anyone else to get a look in…

As for the rest, well the Melbourne circuit isn’t usually a great indicator of form overall, and the fact that there were only 13 starters didn’t really help to gauge where everyone stands. Only three other drivers reached the end of the race without being lapped by them – but they were over 30 seconds behind the Mercedes pair.

Fernando Alonso had been off the grid before the teams even began to travel to Australia but he was the first of many non-starters. The two Manor drivers didn’t make it onto the circuit at all, after their recent skin of their teeth revival left them without many IT systems as they had been wiped in preparation for auction.

However, Valtteri Bottas had injured his back in qualifying and was ruled out of the race. Alonso’s replacement Kevin Magnussen didn’t make the grid after his Honda engine gave up the ghost on the way to the grid and he was swiftly followed by the Red Bull of Kvyat, who had a failed gearbox.

So, just 15 cars were left to take the start of the race.

This had been reduced further by the end of turn one as the Ferrari drivers of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel battled through it, causing Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jnr to hit the back of Raikkonen. Sauber’s Felipe Nasr connected with Pastor Maldonado, forcing the Lotus into a barrier and triggering a Safety Car period. As this happened, the other Lotus headed for the pits as Romain Grosjean was lacking power.

13 drivers were left after lap one…

Not a huge amount else happened to be honest. Raikkonen’s race was further compromised by a cross-threaded wheel nut after his first stop on lap 16. When he came back in on lap 40 the nut didn’t reattach properly and the car had to be swiftly parked.

The final retiree was Max Verstappen who had looked to be on course to do well, but his Renault engine failed, leaving just 11 drivers at the end.

2015 Australian Grand Prix Result