While the F1 pre-season tests painted a story of Ferrari being in a solid position to challenge Mercedes’ predominance, the season-opening Australian GP flipped that account on its head with Mercedes holding an unmistakable preferred standpoint during the time as Ferrari attempted to discover pace. The race saw Valtteri Bottas tempest to triumph – his first since the 2017 Abu Dhabi GP – in front of partner Lewis Hamilton, to give Mercedes a 1-2 wrap up.
Hamilton began the race from shaft position subsequent to setting another lap record at Albert Park amid qualifying, yet it was Bottas who made the better begin, with the Finn previously opening into the lead before Turn 1. From that point on, Bottas stayed in charge at the front and eventually secured the success with a strong 20.886 second edge. He even earned a reward point for setting the quickest lap of the race, giving him a most extreme conceivable count of 26 points.
Ferrari chose to go for the undercut and set Sebastian Vettel on lap 14, constraining Mercedes to stick to this same pattern with Hamilton on the following lap. Nonetheless, the two drivers seemed to battle on their new medium tires and their issues were additionally aggravated by the way that they needed to nurture their vehicles past the end goal on far more seasoned tires than their quick opponents.
Max Verstappen exploited his fresher tires and surpassed Vettel for third spot around the outside of Turn 3 on lap 32 and afterward focused on overwhelming Hamilton. Be that as it may, the Red Bull driver fell back in the wake of running wide at Turn 1 at last phases of the race. This enabled Hamilton to space into second spot, with Verstappen securing the last platform spot. By the by, third spot was a huge outcome for Red Bull Racing, in what was their first race utilizing Honda control; truth be told, it denoted Honda’s first platform complete since the 2008 British GP.
The Ferrari pair of Vettel and Charles Leclerc needed to agree to fourth and fifth spot, separately. Vettel slipped further back in the wake of being surpassed by Verstappen; Leclerc figured out how to get up to speed to him yet seemed to back off after he was approached to hold station.
Kevin Magnussen completed in 6th placem, trailed by Nico Hulkenberg. The two turned into the sole finishers for Haas and Renault, separately. In what had all the earmarks of being a close rehash of a year ago’s occurrence, Grosjean destroyed to the side of the track on lap 29 after his front-left tire was mistakenly fitted in his pit stop. In the interim, Daniel Ricciardo languished a baffling race debut over Renault – he lost his front wing toward the begin in the wake of being propelled once again the grass on the keep running up to the primary corner and headed into the pits at an opportune time to fix the harm. In any case, the group chose to resign him on lap 30 with a speculated issue. The main other retirement was Carlos Sainz, who halted on lap 11 after the backside of his McLaren burst into blazes.
Kimi Raikkonen took eighth spot for Alfa Romeo, with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat gathering together the best 10.
Race result:
| POS | Driver | Vehicle | Laps | Gaps |
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 58 | 1h25m27.325s |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 58 | 20.886s |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Honda | 58 | 22.520s |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 58 | 57.109s |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 58 | 58.230s |
| 6 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas/Ferrari | 58 | 1m27.156s |
| 7 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 57 | 1 lap |
| 8 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo/Ferrari | 57 | 1 lap |
| 9 | Spear Stroll | Hustling Point/Mercedes | 57 | 1 lap |
| 10 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso/Honda | 57 | 1 lap |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | Red Bull/Honda | 57 | 1 lap |
| 12 | Lando Norris | McLaren/Renault | 57 | 1 lap |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Hustling Point/Mercedes | 57 | 1 lap |
| 14 | Alexander Albon | Toro Rosso/Honda | 57 | 1 lap |
| 15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo/Ferrari | 57 | 1 lap |
