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So the pecking order has been set and it's not too different from last year. In fact Mercedes advantage seems higher and its closer between Red Bull and Ferrari over the race distance. The mid-field is extremely close though, Haas seem stronger than other but they generally have been caught up during the season over previous years.

Bottas was phenomenal and he needs to carry this confidence forward as he will face races where Lewis will give it back to him. Really disappointed for Ferrari, they lack pace and should have let Charles through.

The 1 point for fastest lap was certainly being thought about a lot more in the final laps. Overall not the most engaging race from a leader perspective but enough mid-filed battles if that interests anyone. Shame that Max had that offtrack moment else could have been closer for P2 even though Lewis was confident that he had enough in store.

"I want 26 points"
Bottas clearly doesn't want to leave anything to chance this time, and that should make for a good intra-team rivalry if he can keep the momentum going.

Ferrari certainly have gone backwards and fallen into Redbull's lap (or shall we say Redbull can that Max is going to drink all year!), and the drivers were pretty average too. There was no intent even to try for that extra point which was there for taking.

Midfield is quite close - drivers and strategy will make all the difference there (and of course car reliability). Giovinazzi was driving a nice little train for sometime that reminded of Trulli train. His effort certainly helped his team in defending Kimi's P8 from the likes of Stroll/Kvyat/Gasly.

https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/st...97079183609857

So Hamilton was genuinely handicapped :Frustrati

Yes poor guy. Bottas's f word comment indicates his pent up frustration from last year and a message to Ocon - dont mess with me !!
https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/32929...rn-f-you-.html

The Hamster is generally quite good in digging out of holes and will mostly have a measure for Valteri in the next races and Bottas should resume wingman duties I think after that!

Team orders from Ferrari is expected, but right from the first race of the season??

Fun race! And with viewership comes the ad money. Good to see the Mercedes C-Class as the race sponsor.

Bottas truly drove like a champion...a flawless race! How did he take his tyres so long in the first stint? And Max too, what a drive! Honda!!! Imagine a Honda-engined car overtaking a Ferrari. These two were my drivers of the day.

Man, those new wings are awfully wide. While I don't mind how they look, I feel drivers were being super cautious about not clipping them when moving out of the slipstream to overtake. Speaking of looks, the cars look tasty when they get new + shiny tyres. It's like the "wet" look.

Love the new *fastest lap* initiative and it sure led to a little bit of fun toward the end. Equally appreciate the F1 graphics team. Classy way of showing who has the current fastest lap (clock icon next to the driver name).

Just a bit upset with Ferrari's performance gap to Mercedes. I was hoping they were closer, as that would have given us an interesting championship fight.

Seriously disappointed at Ferrari's pace in comparison to Mercedes. More than a minute difference at the end is a lifetime in Formula 1. Its all the more surprising because the Ferrari looked sublime while driving while the Merc was fidgety. Also hard luck for the local boy Ricciardo. The grass was too high as he kept the car near it at the start and lost his front wing within the first 5 seconds of the race. Any other track and he would have been perfectly okay.

Although I am not a Red Bull or a Max fan, the pace from that car was pretty astonishing. McLaren were eternally struggling when they were using Honda engine's and look at what Red Bull have done with them in their first race!

I think Ferrari will struggle this year unless they can do a miracle with the car. Hard time to be a scarlet plus vettel fan.

It was indeed a big disappointment to see Ferrari so further back. Merc made a mistake trying to cover Vettel. Had they known that Vettel will never be a threat. They wouldn't have pitted Hamilton so soon. According to me, floor damage or no floor damage Lewis was on a wrong strategy.

Heartening to see Redbull-Honda getting a podium. It will be a great boost for Honda confidence. And it is in Mclaren's face, they didn't build the right car and kept on blaming it on Honda.

Hopefully Ferrari's being off the pace is one off and they bounce back in Bahrain in two weeks time. Otherwise the season will be too boring for non-mercedes/non-Hamilton fans.

The fastest lap point is nice, all drivers want to go for it and the team prinicpal's don't want them to risk it. Toto was clear after the race, he had told his drivers and engineers that we will not go for the fastest lap.

Leclerc backed off to around 4 second gap before finishing the race less than half a second off Vettel just to prove a point. There is some issue with the Ferrari engines. Vettel asking why they are so slow and the numerous reports of Ferrari lifting and coasting, and being in safe mode raises serious concerns. Hopefully they will fix the issue and be competitive starting next race weekend.

What an absolutely impressive performance by Kvyat.

Finished in the points, and managed to hold Gasly in the Red Bull behind him.

It's understandable that teams don't want to risk it. The gain is only 1 point but you can potentially lose a lot, even DNF if that extra pitstop goes wrong. From Toto's point of view, maximum they can get is 21 points if they set FLAP in *ALL* races. They have already opened with same gap to Ferrari in first race itself. So Toto would rather focus on winning and getting 1-2 finishes than chasing that extra point.

Having said that, at some point you will start seeing drivers/teams in lower positions or out of points trying to steal the point from front runners. Apart from Ferrari, I think Redbull could have tried to steal the point from Bottas by pitting Gasly for a fresh set. He was running P11 with nothing to lose and had a good gap to Norris behind him.

Fastest lap point is awarded among the top ten finishers only.

Yes. My point (sorry for the pun) was not about Gasly getting the point, but preventing Bottas from getting it, which was very much possible if Redbull wanted it. But they probably gambled on Max to try and get it as he did a lap or two before.

But you need to be in the top 10 to get that point added else it will be a simple DHL Fastest Lap award.

2019 Australian Grand Prix: Race Highlights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdD8gEGj0to