A perfect storm of circumstances saw the Australian GP start with a grid of just 15 cars, with a further two disappearing on the first lap. Fortunately only two more were lost as 11 made it to the flag, including - against all odds - a McLaren-Honda. Here's how the weekend panned out for the 10 teams:
Mercedes
To no one's surprise, Mercedes utterly dominated the Melbourne weekend, and the World Champions left the opposition trailing after a dominating performance. Lewis Hamilton had the edge on Nico Rosberg in all three qualifying sessions, eventually taking pole by almost 0.6s after Nico had a scrappy Q3. Hamilton got the start right and he led Rosberg throughout as the pair stopped on laps 25 and 26 respectively in the course of a faultless run. They were both then delighted to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger on the podium. Inevitably at the movie legend's prompting, Lewis said 'I'll be back' for the Sepang weekend (video at bottom of article).
Red Bull
The hoped for progress from Renault since last season failed to materialize in Australia, and indeed the team found itself seemingly worse off than last season. The tone was set when Daniel Ricciardo suffered an engine failure in FP1. He went on to qualify seventh, while new team mate Dany Kvyat was down in 13th after gearbox issues compromised his day. The Russian didn't even make the race after fifth gear failure stopped him on the way to the grid. Ricciardo did at least get to race, and he spent much of it behind Felipe Nasr on his way to an eventual sixth place.
Williams
As expected, Williams was the closest challenger to Mercedes in qualifying, but Ferrari is clearly in the mix. Felipe Massa qualified third and held the position in the first part of the race, but after his stop he got caught behind Daniel Ricciardo, which crucially allowed Sebastian Vettel to jump ahead. After that he had to settle for fourth. Valtteri Bottas suffered a back issue in qualifying and could manage only sixth on the grid. He was hospitalized overnight and eventually the FIA decreed that he could not race. The team is hoping that he will be fit for the Malaysian GP weekend.
Ferrari
Testing had suggested progress at Ferrari and that was borne out in Australia where the huge step made by the Maranello power unit became apparent. The red cars were near the top throughout, and Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen qualified fourth and fifth respectively. Vettel ran in the same position initially, but jumped Felipe Massa at the stops to claim an encouraging third. Raikkonen had contact with both Carlos Sainz and Felipe Nasr at the start, and the damage compromised his performance. He switched to a two-stop strategy, but he had to retire after an issue in the pits saw him leave with a loose left rear wheel.
McLaren
The return of McLaren-Honda was one of the big stories of the weekend, and it proved to be even harder than the team anticipated. Honda opted to 'down-tune' the power units in the search for reliability, and that cost a lot of performance. Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen – standing in for Fernando Alonso – thus found themselves on the back row, having qualified 17th and 18th. Magnussen then didn't even make the start after a spectacular engine failure on the way to the grid. Against the odds however Button managed to make it to the flag in 11th, which was an achievement given that the car had only run 12 consecutive laps previously
Force India
Force India knew that it had some catching up to do after its car arrived late and did minimal testing, and that was reflected by a lack of performance relative to its traditional rivals such as STR and Sauber. Nico Hulkenberg could only qualify 14th, a place ahead of Sergio Perez. However, good reliability allowed both men to score some valuable points. The German had a low-key run to and eventual seventh, while his team mate took 10th after starting on the prime tire and going for an ultra long first stint. He lost out badly by getting stuck behind Button's tardy McLaren, which ruined the strategy.
Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso demonstrated that it had made good progress since last season as it gave sister team RBR a hard time throughout the weekend, despite rookies Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen both being new to the track. Sainz qualified a creditable eighth but software issues and a disastrous problem with the left rear at his pit stop, which cost him 32 seconds, spoiled his race. He still managed to recover to ninth. Verstappen started on the medium tire and thus had to take a patient approach with a long first stint, and he was heading for a decent result when his engine failed on lap 33, immediately after his pit stop.
Lotus
Pastor Maldonado crashes on the opening lap of the 2015 Australian GP.
Lotus has clearly made big steps since last year and its subsequent move to Mercedes, and that was underlined when both drivers made Q3 in Australia, with Romain Grosjean qualifying ninth and Pastor Maldonado lining up just behind him. Alas the Venezuelan driver was the innocent victim of a second corner squeeze, and after a nudge from Felipe Nasr he was pitched hard into the tire wall and out of the race. By unfortunate coincidence, at the same time, Grosjean suffered a loss of power and he pitted to retire at the end of the first lap.
Sauber
A legal fight dominated Sauber’s weekend with Giedo van der Garde over the Dutchman's right to a 2015 race seat. Once that was put on hold the team was able to focus on the track, and it turned into a very good weekend. Rookie Felipe Nasr qualified a solid 11th and then, after a good start, the Brazilian escaped from a first lap collision with Pastor Maldonado to charge to a superb fifth place. Marcus Ericsson qualified 16th and thus had a tougher job, but he worked his way up to eighth to log his first points.
Manor
After a huge last minute effort the Manor Marussia team made it Melbourne with two cars, while Roberto Merhi was a last minute nomination for the second seat. The cars made it through scrutineering successfully but, primarily due to issues with software, they were not able to actually run, and were not seen on track. The team is aiming to resolve the problems and get down to business at Sepang, and it will certainly be a challenging weekend for all concerned.
