The Formula 1 2019 season is fast-approaching with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel expected to do battle for the title once again.
Mercedes star Hamilton won his fifth World Championship in 2018 and is closing in on Michael Schumacher’s legendary total of seven.
There have been plenty of intriguing storylines building over the break with Daniel Ricciardo under the microscope following his switch from Red Bull to Renault.
Just before today’s first Grand Prix of a new season – in Australia – defending, and 5-times, champion, Lewis Hamilton said: “We've got this incredible crowd here today. What a beautiful day. Coming from testing, from winter, we had no idea where we would be. We were hoping of course to be where we are, we've been working towards that; the guys back at the factory have been working so hard.”
Closest challenger to Hamilton’s title run, Sebastian Vettel said after qualifying: “I tried, obviously, to find the limits in Q2, and went a little bit over the limit. Fortunately the car was fine. Q3, run one, or generally Q3 was fine. Overall, that fortunately did not impact our qualifying.”
The margin between Mercedes and Ferrari is more or less the same as it was last year, so this, the first of a 21-Grand Prix season is the start of another exciting season on track.