Ferrari: Victory with Vettel thanks to Haas debacle
INCREDIBLE The opening race of the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship in Australia brought a surprising victory for Ferrari. Geneva's Romain Grosjean and his Haas team were not entirely uninvolved. Charles Leclerc's 13th place puts the Alfa Sauber team in 7th intermediate World Championship place. Lewis Hamilton looked like the sure winner when something unbelievable happened. The two [...]
Lewis Hamilton looked like the sure winner when something unbelievable happened. The two Haas-Ferrari cars in 4th (Kevin Magnussen) and 5th (Romain Grosjean) retired one after the other with loose wheels that had not been properly fixed during their pit stops.
The Frenchman parked his car in a tricky spot, which triggered a virtual safety car phase. While his opponents completed their laps with the field slowed, Sebastien Vettel rushed to his Ferrari pit for the only tire change.
Vettel's time gain was enough to get back into the race just ahead of the defending champion's Mercedes, which had been in a commanding lead until then, and also to overtake his teammate Kimi Räikkönen, who had been in second place until then.
Nothing wrong done and still lost
Hamilton could no longer find a way past the red car of the Swiss by choice and had to admit defeat in consternation. "I don't know what I did wrong," said the world champion at first. In retrospect, he knew: His reserves would have been large enough to increase the lead before and after his tire change under green in front of Vettel.
The Haas F1 team was also stunned after its strongest team performance in qualifying since it joined the team two years ago, only to come away empty-handed due to the two identical mechanic errors (wheel nut jammed during installation).
"We lost a lot of points today," summed up the Geneva native, who competes under a French license, "but if we can confirm this performance, we'll quickly forget about it."
Alfa Sauber better than feared
The two Sauber C37s started the GP weekend in the back of the grid in free practice and almost climbed into the midfield by the time of the race. Marcus Ericsson was in 16th position until the early retirement due to a defective steering.
Charles Leclerc started 18th in his first Grand Prix and was pleased afterwards to have gained his 13th place not just as a beneficiary of retirements but with a couple of genuine overtaking maneuvers. With both Haas retiring and the only placed Williams and Toro Rosso finishing behind the Monegasque, his classification means seventh intermediate place in the Constructors' World Championship.
Team boss Frédéric Vasseur therefore drew a rather positive conclusion.
Frédéric Vasseur: "Too bad for Marcus, he drove an impressive race after a good start. And for Charles it was important to finish his first race. He handled the tires and fuel consumption very well. Both deserve praise. So the whole team leaves Melbourne with a good feeling and confidence for the next race in Bahrain."
