Vettel holds off rival Hamilton for win
It was the 48th race win of Sebastian Vettel’s career.
Believing his Ferrari still lacks the race pace to fully challenge Mercedes in Formula One, Sebastian Vettel will take a little luck when he can get it.
On Sunday at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, his Ferrari team benefited not only from a smart pit-stop strategy, but also the fortuitous emergence of a safety car midway through the race that helped Vettel take the lead from rival Lewis Hamilton and hold on for victory at Melbourne, Australia.
“We got a bit lucky, but we’ll take it,” Vettel said.
It was the 48th race win of Vettel’s career and his 100th podium finish, coming in his 200th F1 race. The German becomes the fourth driver to claim 100 podium finishes, joining Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost.
Vettel finished the race a full five seconds ahead of Hamilton, who started from the pole and had made several late attempts to catch the Ferrari but couldn’t manage to pass on the narrow Albert Park circuit. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen finished third, denying Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo a chance to become the first Australian driver to secure a podium place at the Australian GP.
Fernando Alonso of McLaren made a bold run to finish in fifth place, holding off a spirited challenge by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who recovered after losing control of his car and doing a 360-degree spin early in the race to take sixth.
Hamilton looked comfortable up front for the first 20 laps before deciding to pit, giving up the lead to Vettel. The race then took a dramatic turn when Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean suffered calamitous back-to-back pit stops midway through the race. Both drivers had been running strongly in fourth and fifth places, respectively, but were forced to stop after coming out of pit lane with loose wheels. The virtual safety car emerged as race marshals removed Grosjean’s car from the circuit and Vettel took advantage of the slowdown to pit and change tires. He came out of the pit lane just ahead of a confused Hamilton, who got on the radio to ask his team what had just happened. “Why did you not tell me Vettel was in the pits?” Hamilton asked.
“We thought we were safe, but there’s obviously something wrong,” his team responded.
When racing resumed, Hamilton stayed close to Vettel’s Ferrari, trailing by less than a second for more than 10 laps, but was unable to find space to pass the German. With victory looking increasingly out of reach, Hamilton then eased up toward the end to conserve his engine for future races.
NASCAR postpones race: The NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway was postponed until today because of inclement weather. Rain and light snow started falling Saturday afternoon and continued into the night, creating dangerous driving conditions on nearby roads and leaving little chance of getting the track cleared and dry enough to race Sunday.
There was no qualifying session for the Cup Series because of a wintry mix that moved through the Virginia area and halted the Truck Series race after just 23 laps Saturday. The Truck Series race will resume today, followed by the Cup Series race at 2 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
Clippers 117, (at) Raptors 106:
Celtics 104, (at) Kings 93:
(At) Knicks 101, Wizards 97:
■ Trail Blazers 108, (at) Thunder 105: C.J. McCollum scored 34 points to help the Portland Trail Blazers, who swept all four games with the Thunder this season. Damian Lillard scored 24 points, and Jusuf Nurkic added 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Trail Blazers.
■ Hawks 99, (at) Rockets 118: James Harden had a tripledouble with 18 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in three quarters and the Houston Rockets rolled to their 60th victory.
Jazz at Warriors: