Lewis Hamilton converted his pole position to victory at Albert Park, with a full minute and a half over teammate Nico Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel finished third to take to the podium alongside the Mercedes duo, although he was a full thirty seconds down the road. Felipe Massa ended up fourth, Williams’ sole representative in the race. Bottas was unable to start due to a back injury.

Neither Manor car was able to take to the grid, whilst both Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat failed to complete their installation laps and were unable to start the race. On the first lap, Sainz and Räikkönen nudged each other, which in turn caused Nasr to collide with Maldonado. The Lotus spun out, bringing out the safety car, and Grosjean retired that lap to compound the team’s problems.

A mediocre race followed, with Räikkönen retiring due to a pit stop error leaving him with one wheel not attached properly, and Max Verstappen bringing his first race to an early conclusion after a power unit failure. Jenson Button finished McLaren’s first full race distance in the new car, but was 11th and last.