Australian Grand Prix: Nico Rosberg draws first blood

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg celebrates after winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne on Sunday. Rosberg’s team mate and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was second while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished third. (Photo: AP)

Nico Rosberg capitalised on a slow start off pole by world champion teammate Lewis Hamilton and superior tyre strategy over Ferrari to win the season-opening Aus-tralian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The German won his fourth straight GP and 15th overall after stringing together the final three races of 2015 to beat his Mercedes rival Hamilton by eight seconds.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who led off the grid and was faster than the Mercedes pair on his super softs before needing a tyre change on Lap 36, was third.

It was an incident-packed race with McLaren’s double world champion Fernando Alonso walking away from a horrifying high-speed crash and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari catching fire in the pit lane.

The dominant German team has now won 33 of the last 39 races and it was a sweet triumph for Rosberg, who has trailed Hamilton in the drivers’ standings for the past two seasons.

Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fourth in his Red Bull, with Brazilian Felipe Massa fifth in a Williams and Romain Grosjean sixth for the newcomers Haas.

Hamilton, who had led every practice and qualifying session for the first race, was slowly away allowing Vettel to dart through a narrow opening between both Mercedes to beat them to first turn.

Rosberg locked up on the inside of the first corner, forcing Hamilton to back off and allow Raikkonen to pass them both on the exit to the sharp right-hander.

“I loved the fact we had to come from far behind,” Hamilton said. “I’ve had much worse in the first race and I’ll take it as a bonus to come back from seventh,” he said.