Bottas and Honda are back, but Ferrari go missing

A damaged car accounted for some of Lewis Hamilton’s lack of relative pace in Formula One’s Australian season-opener but the Briton can have no doubt that his winning Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas is a man on a mission.

The Finn, mentally battered after a winless 2018 season that left him dismissed as no more than a ‘wingman’ for five-times champion Hamilton, returned meaner and more determined for Melbourne.

Telling his critics where to go in blunt language over the team radio after taking the chequered flag 20.8 seconds clear of Hamilton on Sunday, Bottas showed he was ready to fight for his place at Mercedes and become a true contender.

The Finn will need plenty more of that inner steel against a team mate whose race was decided by a slow getaway from pole position before his car lost a chunk of its floor, compromising performance.

“It was really about bringing the car home in one piece and making sure we had the one-two. Pretty straightforward to be honest,” said Hamilton.

The Briton has won four of the last five championships, beaten only by then-team mate Nico Rosberg in 2016 when Mercedes were dominant, and also started last season with a second place in Melbourne.

He will be losing no sleep after a race that is always something of an outlier.

“I’ve been here a long, long time and I’ve never known after the first race,” he said when asked how he read the situation.

“You usually take from the first four races a bit of an idea of where we all stand. It could be like this for four races or it could be scattered. I don’t have a crystal ball so I can’t tell you but I can assure you we’ll be pushing onwards and upwards from here.”

(REUTERS)