Lap 22: McLaren’s Magnussen is given a little pat on the back by his
team. Not literally I mean over the radio. ‘Good job’ he’s told. ‘Keep it
up’. He’s just under four seconds off second place having also pitted.
Lap 21: Rosberg now five seconds clear of Aussie Ricciardo with both
taking a pit stop. Hulkenberg is 13.8 seconds off the pace in fourth.
Lap 20: Here’s the running order after 20 laps then: Rosberg,
Ricciardo, Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Button, Vergne, Raikkonen, Kvyat,
Bottas
Lap 19: Another fastest lap set by Rosberg who is flying out there.
Raikkonen, with Ferrari again, is up to seventh and his team-mate Alonso two
spots ahead of them. The driver between them, Button going about his
business quite nicely. One to watch out there today I think.
Lap 18: Dark clouds are looming but still no sign of the expected light
showers. Bottas, who suffered that puncture a few laps ago and forced out
the safety car, is now up to 12th.
Lap 17: Now Hamilton: “It’s unfortunate, but it’s racing. We have
great pace, Nico is doing a great job out there so hopefully one of our car
makes it.” And his team-mate is going well, posting the fastest time
after the departure of the safety car and he’s two seconds clear.
Lap 16: Vettel on his retirement: Basically I had no power from the
start, we tried to recover as much as we could. There was a bigger problem
for the engine, we lost a couple of cyclinders, lost more power so we had to
stop. No doubt we’ll fix the issues, it’s just a case of how long it will
take. We’ve learnt a lot this weekend. The car can be quick and if we fix
the issues we can be competitive again…..and the safety car has
departed. We’re racing again.
Lap 15: Still with the safety car and Red Bull inform second-placed
Ricciardo that there’s likely to be a few spots on rain on the horizon. Cue
shot of dark clouds overhead.
Lap 13: As you were on the Albert Park track as the safety car still
leads the way as the final pieces of debris are cleared. Retirements
already: Hamilton, Vettel, Massa and Kobayashi. Here’s the car after
Kobayashi’s crash on the opening corner.
Lap 12: Rosberg, Ricciardo and Magnussen all pit while the safety car
is out. And all make it back out to make-up the top three running order.
“Talk about a war of attrition. After just five laps, F1 2014 has
claimed both Lewis Hamilton, the pre-season favourite, and reigning champion
Sebastian Vettel.
A phenomenal start by Rosberg, and some great scraps all the way down the
field. Magnussen is also performing assuredly in third place.
If this is what we’re in for all season then it’s going to be absolutely
brilliant.”
Lap 11: There’s debris on the track from Bottas’s blown tyre. The
yellow flag is raised and the safety car is out.
Lap 10: It had been going so well for Bottas but he’s pushing his car
to the limits, goes slightly wide and brushes against the wall. That’s going
to do some damage. It has, the engine sounds terrible and the rear
right-hand tyre has blown. We wait to see if he can make it back to the pits
and return.
Lap 9: We’re now up to four retirements as Rosberg continues to lead
from Ricciardo.
Lap 8: Bottas passes Raikkonen to move up to sixth with a fantastic
overtake, the Williams driver started from 15th.
Lap 7: Williams’s Valterri Bottas posts the fastest lap of the
race and is all over Kimi Raikkonen‘s Ferrari as they battle for
sixth place.
Lap 6: Amid the retirements, Rosberg builds a four-second lead over
Ricciardo.
Lap 5: Sebastian Vettel is now in the pits and it doesn’t look
good, he’s already 15 seconds off the pace and his day might be over before
it’s begun too. And he’s gone. A second retirement. The champion and title
favourite are both forced to retire.
Lap 4: No such problems for Hamilton’s team-mate Rosberg as he
continues to lead from Ricciardo.
Lap 3: Hamilton has dropped to fifth with the top three in these early
stages being Rosberg, Ricciardo and McLaren’s Magnussen. Hamilton,
meanwhile, opts to come in at the end of the lap. Problem with his gearbox
and he’s had to retire. HAMILTON RETIRES WITH GEARBOX FAILURE
Lap 2: Hamilton incredibly being told by his engineers to come in, save
the engine and retire but it’s not clear what the problem is. Doesn’t matter
the Brit ignores team orders, doesn’t pit and keeps on driving. The engineer
comes back on the line, ‘stay out, stay out’….moments later there’s
silence from both driver and engineer!
Lap 1: Nico Rosberg gets off to a flying start and makes it to
the first corner ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton who
is also overtaken by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Sebastian Vettel is
overtaken by pretty much everyone while Fernando Alonso is pushed
back a place to sixth. Kamui Kobayashi’s car is stranded on the gravel on
the opening corner after being forced out wide.
06.06 Lights out!!
06.02 Ready for the off? Mmmmh, no. A false start at Albert Park as
Marussia’s other driver Jules Bianchi is left stranded on the grid
and the yellow flag is raised. Another warm-up lap ensues and then we’ll get
under way…hopefully.
05.59 And Lotus’s Romain Grosjean gets a drive-through penalty
for leaving the garage early. And he starts from the pitlane.
05.58 Not a great start for Brit Max Chilton. He’s left on the
grid as everyone else get away for their warm-up lap. News is that they’ve
wheeled his car back to the garage and hope to fix the issue in double-quick
time.
05.55 Here’s the starting grid then for the season opener. Everyone’s
been talking up Mercedes’s chances, but could Button sneak a podium place
today from 10th?
1 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 2 – Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull), 3 –
Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), 4 – Kevin Magnussen (McLaren), 5 – Fernando Alonso
(Ferrari), 6 – Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), 7 – Nico Hulkenberg (Force
India), 8 – Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso), 9 – Felipe Massa (Williams), 10 –
Jenson Button (McLaren), 11 – Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari), 12 – Sebastian
Vettel (Red Bull), 13 – Adrian Sutil (Sauber), 14 – Valtteri Bottas
(Williams), 15 – Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham), 16 – Sergio Perez (Force
India), 17 – Max Chilton (Marussia), 18 – Jules Bianchi (Marussia),
19 – Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), 20 – Marcus Ericsson (Caterham), 21 –
Romain Grosjean (Lotus), 22 – Pastor Maldonado (Lotus)
05.50 Here’s Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo taking up his place
second on the grid (courtesy of Daniel as he strolls around the grid). How
fast will his car be today? He stunned a few during qualifying when he was
just pipped to pole by Hamilton and how the local crowd would love to see
the local boy do well.
05.45 We await to hear how much quieter the grid will sound with these
new, smaller hybrid engines. There’s been plenty of criticism from fans and
drivers alike. Jenson Button, who starts from 10th today said: “I don’t
think the fans will like the sound when the cars go past. It will open their
eyes and see it’s a new F1 car. I miss 2003 and 2004 – those were great
years for the sound of the engine, but that is no more.”
Think
you know your engines? Well take our brilliant interactive quiz, created
by our F1 man Daniel Johnson, to see if you know as much as you think you
do.
05.30 View from the track…our F1 correspondent Daniel Johnson’s
thoughts on today’s curtain raiser as he wanders around Albert Park.
“So the waiting is almost finally over, and if anyone tells you what’s
going to happen in too much detail, they probably don’t know or are making
it up.
Mercedes look strong, but they’re not invulnerable. It will be fascinating
to see the respective pace of the teams in the dry (although rain is
forecast at some point in the race), but there’s every chance we could leave
Melbourne still without the clearest idea of the pecking order in 2014.
My tentative prediction? A Mercedes-powered car will win, probably from the
works team, and the cars might be more reliable than everyone had intially
thought. That said, it’s hard to see even half of the Renault cars
finishing.
In the short-term, what I’m most interested to see, or hear, I suppose, is
how 22 of these hybrid cars actually sound when the crescendo builds on the
grid. It might be quite a limp crescendo this year, given what we have seen
already.
The drivers have just been for their customary pre-race photo, and I’m told
Lewis Hamilton was reluctant to take his sunglasses off. Funny, seeing as
some dark clouds are hanging above Albert Park…”
05.15 So what are these radical changes I hear some of you asking who
have had their heads in the sand for this past few weeks. Well in brief the
sport has embraced ‘green’ technology with the introduction of 1.6litre V6
turbos to replace the 2.4-litre V8s, while drivers now have to complete
races on about 130 litres of fuel. While we’ve been aware of KERS for some
time, the new engines will rely more heavily on hybrid technology, known as
ERS (or energy recovery system). While KERS are operated by the driver
pushing a button, ERS are controlled by the engine management computer.
Harder tyres will also be available to teams and an extra set available each
race weekend.
The other main change is the new-styled noses, or ‘giant anteaters’ which they
have been more lovingly been referred as. Lowering the noses from 550mm to
185mm above the ground is another safety precaution to stop cars launching
themselves off rivals.
What else do you need to know? Just the small matter of the controversial
double points at the final race in Abu Dhabi, meaning the race winner can
walk away 50 points to the good.
05.00 Morning all. It’s a fascinating sport, Formula One. Just when one
team think they’ve honed their engines and cars to perfection, organisers
come in rip up the rule book, scribble down some new ones – including one
massive controversial change (the double points award in season finale) –
and shift the goalposts to a completely different pitch in another county.
For engineers and team designers it must be like solving the world’s biggest
and über complex Rubik’s Cube only for someone to come over to it, shift a
few sides and then go na-na-na-na-na in your face (or some more
sophisticated words).
Who am I to complain? It certainly shakes things up and brings the
entertainment factor and unpredictable element back to the sport at the
start of the new season and certainly makes it appealing and entices new
supporters.
What if the sport hadn’t gone through their radical changes? The domination of
Sebastian Vettel last season, however commendable, turned away many fans of
the sport who prefer to dip their toes into F1 rather than claiming to be
petrol heads.
Vettel might have No 1 emblazoned on the front of his car this season, one of
the new ideas to give drivers a bit more identity by allowing them to pick
their ‘squad’ numbers except for the current champion. But the troubled
winter Red Bull have suffered means Vettel is more likely to relinquish
número uno at the end of the season.
Vettel couldn’t even make Q3 yesterday as his new Aussie team-mate Daniel
Ricciardo dismissed fears of a complete Red Bull demise by ending up the
meat in a Mercedes sandwich for the grid today with title favourite Lewis
Hamilton pipping the 24 year-old in a dramatic final 10 seconds of
qualy.
Stay with us as we bring you build up and lap-by-lap coverage of the opening
race of the season.
Get in touch with your thoughts. Who will win the title, which team-mates will
fall out first and are Red Bull really as rubbish as they’d like us to
think?
Email vicki.hodges@telegraph.co.uk
or tweet @TelegraphSport
with your predictions