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Valtteri Bottas upstaged his Mercedes world champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton to blitz the field and win the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix in a sizzling performance Sunday. The flying Finn started second on the grid but got a jump on the poBottas upstages Hamilton at Australian Grand Prix
Valtteri Bottas upstaged his Mercedes world champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton to blitz the field and win the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix in a sizzling performance Sunday. The flying Finn started second on the grid but got a jump on the polesitting Briton at the first corner and never looked back, scorching round the Albert Park circuit to take the chequered flag a massive 20.9 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Red Bull's precocious Max Verstappen came third to join them on the podium after audaciously overtaking Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel midway through the race. Four-time world champion Vettel had to settle for fourth, trailing in 57.1 seconds behind Bottas. Ferrari partner Charles Leclerc was fifth, with Kevin Magnussen in a Haas sixth. «How about that! Yes!» said Bottas over the team radio after also taking the new bonus point for the fastest lap of the race. «Thank you guys.» Bottas was overshadowed last year by Hamilton, failing to win a race, hampered by mechanical problems and bad luck but was fast in qualifying and only narrowly edged out of pole position. Bottas, now in his third year with Mercedes, knows he must perform with promising Frenchman Esteban... Read more