Sebastian Vettel wins Australian Gran Prix 2018

The win for Vettel marked the 230th victory for Ferrari and the 9th for Sebastian Vettel in his stint with Scuderia. This was the German's 48th win in his entire career. Hamilton was off to a blistering start at the beginning of the race and looked a favourite to win but fortunes favoured Vettel who started off third on the grid. Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen who began the race second on the grid finished in third. The combined wins of both Ferrari drivers have put the team in the leading position for the Drivers' and Constructor's championship with 25 and 37 points respectively.

Any pit stops made under the virtual safety car take 10 seconds less than those made when the cars are at full pace. This time gain is what allowed Vettel to snatch the lead from Hamilton. Mercedes has officially claimed that due to a software glitch Vettel was able to capitalise on the pit stop. Silver Arrows Chief, Toto Wolff stated  “We were trying to build enough of a gap with Raikkonen to avoid the undercut and we were trying to have enough gap to the Haas to have the Safety Car gap. Everything was under control. We took a bit of a risk of putting Lewis on a soft compound to go to the end, but it was the only choice to avoid Kimi jumping us. The pace was good. Then we calculated the VSC (Virtual Safety Car) gap which was needed. Our computer said 15 seconds was the necessary time in order to jump us. The drivers oscillate within one second in the delta. Then suddenly the cameras showed us the pit exit. Sebastian came out in front of us. The software or system we have been using for five years just gave us the wrong number. Lewis did nothing wrong. It was down to a software bug or an algorithm that was simply wrong.”

Both Haas cars did not finish the race with team principal Guenther Steiner indicating the wheel nuts on both cars were cross threaded meaning that the tyres were not fixed correctly before either car left their pit box.  Steiner said, "It was just a bad pit stop". On lap 34 Sebastian Vettel set the fastest lap. Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished outside the points table, standing at 11th and 12th respectively. 

POS                DRIVER                          CAR                                                      PTS

1                      Sebastian Vettel               FERRARI                                              25

2                      Lewis Hamilton               MERCEDES                                         18

3                      Kimi Räikkönen               FERRARI                                             15

4                      Daniel Ricciardo               RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER   12

5                      Fernando Alonso             MCLAREN RENAULT                         10

6                      Max Verstappen              RED BULL RACING TAG HEUER       8

7                      Nico Hulkenberg              RENAULT                                              6

8                      Valtteri Bottas                   MERCEDES                                           4

9                     Stoffel Vandoorne          MCLAREN RENAULT                              2

10                    Carlos Sainz                  RENAULT                                                  1