The Terminator Is Back

Lewis Hamilton became the Silver Arrow Terminator as he lapped half of the field to win the season opener in Melbourne.

Hamilton must have said "hasta la vista, baby" to the seven drivers who failed to finish the race, three of which didn't even start. Valtteri Bottas wasn't passed fit from back pain suffered in qualifying with Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kyvat failing to make the grid with power unit and gear box issues.

Nico Rosberg was unable to get the jump on his team-mate at the start and a first corner incident behind the Mercedes brought out the safety car. Sebastian Vettel was alongside his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen going into turn one. Raikkonen backed out, ran wide, came back on to the track and sandwiched Felipe Nasr with Pastor Maldonado.

Nasr touched Maldonado and sent the Lotus into the barrier. Raikkonen would later retire after being released from the pits with an unsecured rear left tyre. Max Verstappen's early promise was cut short when he was forced to retire, as was Romain Grosjean.

Sauber ended a turbulent week by having both drivers finishing in the points. Nasr showed composure to take 5th with his team-mate Marcus Ericsson 8th. Force India also brought their cars home with Nico Hulkenberg 7th and Sergio Perez 10th. Daniel Ricciardo and Sainz took their Renault powered cars across the finish line in 6th and 9th.

With 11 finishers, the driver who missed out on the points was Jenson Button. The 2009 world champion Honda held off Perez before the first round of pit-stops. Button was able to get some much needed mileage by finishing the race after a truncated pre-season testing. McLaren will be looking forward to Fernado Alonso returning for Malaysia. 

Hamilton savoured his sixth victory in seven races when Hollywood came to Albert Park with Arnold Schwarzenegger conducting the podium interviews. A chill must have gone down the pit-lane when Hamilton and Arnie, in unison, told the crowd "I'll be back."

Business As Usual

Lewis Hamilton picked up where he left off last season by going 0.594 seconds faster than Nico Rosberg to take pole at the Australian Grand Prix.

Hamilton had the edge over his team-mate throughout the session and was substantially faster than Rosberg through the first sector. Taking Turn 1 in fourth gear, Hamilton was able to get on the power quicker than Rosberg, who took the corner in third gear. Rosberg had felt the pinch in the first run in the third qualifying period when he ran wide at Turn 15 and later posted a time of 1.26.921 that was unable to dislodge Hamilton from pole position.

Williams showed their strength with Felipe Massa taking third position but his time was 1.391 seconds off the pace and further underlined Mercedes dominance. His team-mate Valteri Bottas was denied a place on the second row when he had a tank slapper after running wide on the last corner. Bottas qualified sixth but will have a medical assessment before the race after suffering back pains half way through the session.

Ferrari backed up their pre-season pace with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen taking fourth and fifth. Daniel Ricciardo took his under-powered Red Bull Renault to seventh and rookie Carlos Sainz Jr. impressed in the Torro Rosso in taking eighth. Lotus put behind their troubles of last year by rounding out the top ten with Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.

The race to fill the bottom five spots on the grid in Q1 became a battle for the three lowest positions with Manor Marussia staying in the pit garage. 

Honda had decided to turn down their engines for reliability reasons and Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen fought for the ignominious last position on the grid. Button got the edge on his team-mate with a time that was almost four seconds slower than the Mercedes. McLaren have it all to do and can only hope for a 58 lap practice session.

Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber also missed the cut of Q1 and his team-mate Felipe Masr (11th on the grid) can be rest assured they'll be racing this weekend after the team came to an agreement with Guiedo Van de Garde. Van de Garde had earlier given up his claim to race this weekend and it remains to be seen whether Sauber will be willing to race the Dutchman this season.

Max Verstappen in the Torro Rosso qualified ahead of Red Bull's Daniil Kyvat and the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to round out the grid in Q2.

To recap, the grid for the Australian Grand Prix is:

Hamilton - Rosberg

Massa - Vettel

Raikkonen - Bottas

Ricciardo - Sainz

Grosjean - Maldonado

Nasr - Verstappen

Kvyat - Hulkenberg

Perez - Ericsson

Button - Magnussen

Rosberg will be hoping to make the jump on Hamilton into Turn One but Lewis will have other ideas.

Back With A Bang - F1 2015 Season Preview

It doesn't seem that long ago that Lewis Hamilton made that quick start off the line and flew the Union Jack proudly around Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi to become only the fourth British driver to win the Formula One World Championship more than once.

A lot has happened for the Stevenage racer since then. He pipped Rory Mcllroy to BBC Sports Personality of the Year and his six year on-off relationship with former Pussycat Doll, Nicole Scherzinger, looks to be permanently off. Hamilton was surprised when he realised that he was the oldest driver in the room during Thursday's Driver's Press Conference and he is a much more wiser man compared with the one that last defended the title in 2009.

Hamilton admitted he has a car more likely to defend the title than five years ago and the formidable Mercedes will take some beating. Across the Mercedes garage is Nico Rosberg. A driver who has now experienced a title fight and is hungry to make the next step. In order to do that, Rosberg will have to beat Hamilton in a straight fight, and not crack under the pressure like he did going into Turn One at Monza.

Hamilton, beginning this season's gamesmanship, said that Fernando Alonso is the best team mate he has driven against, and this is the season Rosberg has to prove himself.

Alonso has proved himself time and again what he can get out of an under performing car and he has just that with McLaren Honda. The team's glory days of late 1980s/early 1990s are a distant memory now as McLaren have had a lot of reliability issues in pre-season testing. Honda are a year behind the other engine suppliers in power unit development and their pre-season woes have been similar to Renault last year. Renault's reliability improved later in 2014 and Honda are hoping they'll do the same this year.

Pre-season testing was eventful for Alonso as he crashed out of the Second Test at Barcelona. Running wide on Turn 3, the McLaren snatched back across the track and hit the inside barrier side on at 134mph. With no tyre barrier cushioning the blow to the most unprotected area of the car, Alonso suffered a concussion and awoke in hospital with retro-grade amnesia. Momentarily, Alonso believed he was back in 1995 and had obviously forgotten the day we met when I got an autograph from a little known Minardi driver at a Donington Park race day back in 2001! 

The doctors were cautious about Alonso suffering a second concussion and have put him on bed rest. Kevin Magnussen gets his old job back, for a race at least, and partners Jenson Button once again. Button considered trying out for the Olympic triathlon at Rio 2016 if he hadn't got a drive this year and it is disappointing he hasn't had a fast car for most of his time at McLaren. Hopefully the team can get back up the field but they'll have to fight past a few teams.

Williams and Ferrari have shown in pre-season testing that they will be the best of the rest and will be hoping to clean up any scraps that the battling Mercedes may offer. Sebastian Vettel looks settled and rejuvenated at Ferrari and Valteri Bottas showed a lot of promise last year. Daniel Riccardo is now the undisputed Number One at Red Bull and can get a lot out of the car.

Red Bull's sister team, Torro Rosso, will be hoping success runs in the family with their rookie driving pair of Carlos Sainz Jr. (son of rally world champion) and Max Verstappen (son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen).

Lotus will look to improve on a poor 2014 and their change from Renault to Mercedes engine should help this. Lotus and Force India driver line-ups remain the same and this consistency may prove vital in the mid-field battles.

Marussia were destined to join Caterham as the defunct 2014 teams but an 11th hour deal has seen the team relaunched as Manor Marussia. Their 2014 car has been modified for this year's safety regulations and they should see a 2015 spec model by the European races in May. Jules Bianchi is unfortunately unavailable due to the horrific crash in Japan last year so British driver Will Stevens will have Roberto Merhi as his Manor Marussia team mate. However, Manor Marussia have had technical issues which have forced the team to remain in the pit garage. The driver line-up at Sauber has been a lot more problematic.

Giedo Van de Garde successfully fought Sauber in court over a breach of contract after he was ditched for Felipe Nasir and Marcus Ericsson and their more lucrative sponsorship money. Pay drivers have always been a part of the sport with Nikki Lauda paying his way into F1 but their necessity has become vital in modern F1. 

Van de Garde arrived at the Albert Park track this week and had to apply for a guest pass to be allowed into the paddock. Armed with the guest paddock pass, he had to wear Ericsson's overalls because he didn't have any of his own. 

Sauber's team principal Monisha Kaltenborn faces jail or a fine for contempt of court if Van de Garde doesn't drive this weekend. A fine is more likely, especially with Van de Garde not having a super licence. The FIA will have to grant Van de Garde a super licence before Saturday's final practice session for him to race and this may be unlikely with Sauber terminating his contract. Even if Van de Garde is successful in getting back in the car, his relationship with the rest of the team will surely be toxic.

Sauber are trying to settle the case out of court but the financial ramifications for the team could be fatal as they slip further down the grid.

The grid this weekend will likely be led by a Mercedes 1-2 with Rosberg pipping Hamilton in Second Practice by 0.1 seconds and Vettel by 0.715 seconds. Button finished in 13th and would be happy with that result in qualifying. But being 3.69 seconds off the pace, his team-mate hitting the wall, and four drivers not taking part in the session, the first aim for Button is to get into the second qualifying session.

Felipe Massa and Ricciardo sat out the session due to power unit issues and reliability problems plagued Pastor Maldonado and Verstappen as well.

So, can Hamilton join Sir Jackie Stewart, as a three-time British World Champion by the end of this season? Can Rosberg get the better of his team mate? Which other teams will win races this year? Can McLaren Honda surprise us all? Will Manor Marussia survive the season? Will Van de Garde get a drive?

The journey starts with lights out on Sunday.