“Luckily it was Seb who got the luck and it was our team at least. We didn’t have the most luck but what can you do,' he said. Team-mate Raikkonen, bidding for his third win in Australia, kept Ricciardo and Red Bull off the podium. Vettel proved too resilient and held on as Hamilton backed off over the final laps realising he could not pass the flying German. Hamilton made an error as he locked up at turn nine and fell 2.8 seconds behind Vettel with 11 laps remaining. Vettel retained his lead as the race was restarted and built a lead of seven-tenths of a second. Mercedes potentially miscalculated the VSC minimum speed during the phase Vettel claimed the lead. “We thought we were safe, but there’s obviously something wrong,' the team told Hamilton.

“What just happened guys? Was that my mistake?' a confused Hamilton said on team radio as he saw Vettel come out of the pit lane in front of him before a full safety car was sent out with marshals struggling to remove the stranded Haas of Romain Grosjean. Vettel had led after Hamilton’s early tyre stop and when mid-race the German changed to a new set of soft tyres he emerged still ahead, gaining around 10 seconds in the pit lane thanks to the Mercedes driver having to slow on track once the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) had been deployed. “At the end it was live to fight another day and save the engine.' “We still have great pace and during the race I could apply pressure at the end but it is so hard to overtake here. We have to go back to the drawing board and work on it,' Hamilton said. Hamilton, who had started from pole position, got out his car and looked a bit bewildered as he removed his helmet, wondering how exactly that race got away from him. Vettel, 30, is in a duel this season with Hamilton as they chase 1950s Argentine legend Juan Manuel Fangio’s mark of five world titles-second only to Michael Schumacher’s seven in the all-time list. It was Vettel’s 48th win in his 200th grand prix and follows his earlier wins in Melbourne in 2011 for Red Bull and last year for Ferrari. We’re not yet where we want to be, I don’t quite feel the car, but it gives us a good start, good wind and fresh motivation.' “Lewis did a great lap yesterday and deserved pole and he drove a very good race, controlling in the beginning.

“Obviously we were a little bit lucky today,' Vettel said at the victory ceremony.

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