Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel opened his Formula One title defence by driving a flawless race, outpacing McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to win the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Starting from the pole, Vettel maintained his lead after the first turn and had already opened a gap of more than 2 seconds over Hamilton following the first lap and the German's lead was never seriously threatened.
Renault's Vitaly Petrov was a surprise third, claiming his first-ever podium finish with a strong showing.
Vettel, who employed a two-stop strategy on the new Pirelli tires, made his first pit stop to change to softer rubber in the 14th lap, emerging in third place ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button. He regained the lead two laps later when Hamilton made a tire change and never looked back, eventually winning by more than 22 seconds.
"Very cool," he radioed to his team after taking the checkered flag. "Excellent car. Excellent stops."
"Lewis didn't push so hard any more. It was not an easy race," Vettel said. "The start was crucial, I was on the clean side and I had a good getaway."
Fernando Alonso finished fourth, while Australian Mark Webber was fifth, as both used three-stop strategies — one more than the podium finishers.
Button was sixth, falling short in his bid to win the race for a third straight year. He had to make a drive-through penalty after using a slip road to pass Ferrari's Felipe Massa early in the race, and that cost him a shot at third.
Sauber's Sergio Perez was an impressive seventh in his first grand prix, remarkably only having to pit once. He finished ahead of teammate Kamui Kobayashi, while Massa was ninth and Toro Rosso's Sebastian Buemi took the last point in 10th.
It was a bad day for Mercedes, with both Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg not finishing.
"I had a good start, made up quite a few positions, then had a good run into turn three, but as I turned in, someone (Jaime Alguersuari) knocked on to my right rear," Schumacher said. "The consequence was I had a puncture which destroyed the right tire, and driving back to the pits basically destroyed the right floor. In the end the team decided for safety it wasn't worth staying out."
Hamilton also damaged the floor of his car when he went wide on turn one of his 32nd lap, or perhaps shortly beforehand. He continued even though he said after the race the floor was ‘massively damaged.’
It was a credible performance by McLaren, who were expected to be off the pace early in the season after a difficult offseason.
"We can take this and be very proud of ourselves," Hamilton said. "A week or two ago we were not expecting to be anywhere near the top five."
Petrov's performance was impressive and would give a boost to a Renault team who lost No.1 driver Robert Kubica to serious injury after a rally crash during the offseason.
"The team did everything perfectly and we should be massively proud," Petrov said.
Rosberg was forced to retire shortly after colliding with Williams' Rubens Barrichello on the 24th lap. Barrichello was handed a drive-through penalty for causing the crash.
The Bahrain Grand Prix was originally scheduled to open the season March 13. It was canceled last month by Bahrain's Crown Prince after anti-government protests. FIA's World Motor Sport Council has given Bahrain's federation until May 1 to decide if a new date can be set this year.
