After taking took pole position for the first race for the new-era wider, faster F1 cars, Lewis Hamilton led the race early but was shadowed by Vettel’s Ferrari for most of the opening stint.

When a lack of grip forced Hamilton and the Mercedes team to make their tyre change earlier than had been planned, Ferrari and Vettel were able to capitalise. Ferrari timed Vettel’s tyre stop to perfection, so that when the German resumed he emerged onto the track in front of Hamilton.

From there the superiority of the new Ferrari SF70H at the Albert Park circuit was plain to see. Vettel controlled the race from there, with Hamilton lackingf the pace to put the Ferrari driver under pressure.

Hamilton’s more pressing issue was the looming presence behind of new Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The Finn, who had been widely expected to pose no threat to Hamilton, was impressive in his first race appearance with Mercedes and crossed the line less than 1.5 seconds adrift of Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen was a somewhat lacklustre fourth for Ferrari, trailing Bottas at the end by some 11 seconds. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen was a distant fifth ahead the Williams of the out-of-retirement Felipe Massa, the last runner to be unlapped.

For Daniel Ricciardo, it was a home grand prix to forget. Ricciardo’s woes began in qualifying when a shunt left him with no time from Q3 top 10 qualifying, and subsequently with a five-spot grid penalty for replacing the gearbox which had been damaged in the crash.

But the Australian didn’t even make it to the grid for the start, after his car broke down on the track during a reconnaissance lap to the grid. He eventually joined the race two laps down, only to retire with a mechanical failure at the halfway point.

The next round of the 2017 World Drivers’ Championship is the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai on April 9.