Vettel topples the Mercedes star: statements from the top 3!

Vettel between Joy and Caution

The work accomplished for over a year at Maranello has just borne fruit. The four-time world champion clinched his fourth victory for Scuderia Ferrari. The end of an 18-month collective drought. The last success was in September 2015, on the streets of Singapore!

Always very communicative in victory, Vettel did not hide his enthusiasm once he climbed to the top step of the podium. While reflecting on his start, which was average: « It was an incredible race! From the first laps, I knew we had the right pace. The start wasn’t completely satisfying, a bit too nervous to be honest! A lot of wheel spin, Hamilton’s was better. I had to watch out for Valtteri. »

Vettel could have lost everything at the start against Bottas. But that wasn’t the case. On the contrary, the ex-Red Bull driver set a strong pace in the first stint, which forced Hamilton to change tires as early as the 16th lap. The turning point of a race that favored the German driver. « We fought well with Lewis. Fortunately, he rejoined in traffic. »

This victory, the 43rd of his career, is valuable in more ways than one. For the first time since the advent of V6 Turbo engines, a Mercedes driver does not lead the drivers’ championship. It was therefore necessary to thank his entire team, which has done a monumental job to catch up with the German benchmark: « The guys have worked very hard. They slept little this week. But the car performed very well. I took great pleasure in driving it! » Words in the same vein as those spoken on his radio once the finish line was crossed, with Vettel making sure to immediately include his entire team, in Italian in the text. « This victory is for all of us! »

That winning feeling for @ScuderiaFerrari and Sebastian Vettel 👀 📻 🏆#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/t2DKaVY8TK

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 26, 2017

Now, the hard part begins. The development race is just starting and Mercedes will not give up so easily: « We are just on cloud nine with the start we had today. The result is fantastic, but let’s keep our feet on the ground. The road is long in the title race. »

Hamilton, a good sport.

The triple world champion had warned. The 57 laps of the race at the heart of Albert Park confirmed his theory. Ferrari has never seemed so strong since the hybrid era began in 2014! The Briton was not surprised once he got out of the car: « Congratulations to Ferrari. Their pace shown during testing was indeed true. On our side, we struggled with the tires. »

The driver bearing the number 44 reflected on the fateful moment: his stop on the 17th lap of the race. « I followed the planned strategy. I just stopped one lap earlier than my intended target. I couldn’t go any further. »

A small admission of weakness that proved fatal. Coming out behind Verstappen, the die was cast. From then on, Sebastian Vettel got ahead of him during his pit stop. Hamilton then stayed beyond the 5-second gap, even briefly seeing the return of his own teammate: « To be honest, I felt strong at the very end of the race. But it was too late! »

However, Mercedes must roll up its sleeves. The Ferrari opponent is up and running: « We must improve our set-up to make things better for the next race. The race was enjoyable: we are now in the fight! I will come back stronger in the next race, rest assured! »

Are these two set for an epic, season-long battle for the championship? 🤔

📸 HAM congratulates VET on his victory in Melbourne 🤝#AusGP 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/X8uFbXB9RH

— Formula 1 (@F1) 26 mars 2017

Bottas did the job

Finally, it is worth acknowledging the first podium of the Finnish driver for Mercedes. Nico Rosberg’s successor performed well in Australia, keeping Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari at bay. He clinched his 10th personal podium: « The team has been very welcoming to me. We worked very hard, but the guys in red were too fast for us today. »