Setting the pace: Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel won the Australian Grand Prix for Ferrari on March 26, in a stunning win over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, in the season's first Formula One race. This was Vettel’s first win since the Singapore Grand Prix in September 2015. The German opened a 9.9 second gap to runner-up Hamilton, with Valteri Bottas, who joined the team after reigning champion Nico Rosberg announced his retirement, finishing third in his first race with Mercedes. “For all of us, it is a positive surprise,” Vettel said after the race, which has new rules and regulations this year. During pre-season testing in Barcelona, the new Ferrari car had seemed very fast, and the race-day “reward” has put Ferrari at the top of the championship standings after years. It was a dramatic race, with pole-sitter Hamilton pitting early, and unable to pass Dutch teenager Max Verstappen when he rejoined the track, thus allowing Vettel to race away to the top.
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