Mercedes headed into 2015 as defending champions, with Hamilton (now double world champion) and 2014 runner up Rosberg. Ricciardo, best of the rest in 2014, remained at Red Bull, whilst Vettel had moved to Ferrari to join Raikkonen. Alonso moved to McLaren to partner Button, and both Sauber and Manor fielded all-new lineups.
Winter testing showed that Mercedes were potentially even stronger than in 2014, with Ferrari and Williams fighting over 2nd and 3rd. It was hard to judge how well some would do due to limited 2015 car running, but it seemed that McLaren would be lucky to regularly score points.
Prior to Australia, McLaren replaced the recovering Alonso (who had a crash in the final test) with Magnussen, who was relegated to third driver role after a year as Button's team mate.
Once the teams had arrived in Australia, it was a mostly uneventful weekend: Qualifying saw Mercedes ahead of Vettel, with Massa close behind. However, Bottas injured his back during Q3, and therefore was unable to race. Manor turned up but didn't set any laps on Friday or Saturday, so they also failed to start. As for race day itself, Kvyat and Magnussen's cars both broke down before taking to the grid, meaning we only had 15 drivers actually on the grid.
Aside a crash at the first chicane (with Maldonado spun into the Turn 2 wall) it turned out to be a relatively processional race, and out of the 15 starters only 11 finished. Amazingly Button was one of them, but his McLaren wasn't fast enough to keep up with the points scoring 10. One of the highlights in this race was seeing Nasr, Sainz and Verstappen (until his car broke down) doing well and proving that rookies can progress quickly at the highest level. Nasr's Sauber stayed out of trouble to take 5th, the best result for a Brazilian on their debut, while Sainz finished 9th for Toro Rosso ahead of Perez.
From top 3 on the grid to podium in the race, we saw Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel finish where they started. Massa was 4th for Williams, however Raikkonen's car broke down mid-race. Ericsson was 8th for Sauber, having moved from the now defunct Caterham towards the end of 2014.
Ahead of the race in Malaysia, Alonso was declared fit and returned for McLaren - proving once again how safety has generally improved in the last 20 years. On race day, we would see Manor start for the first time in 2015 after travelling to Australia but not taking part.
Mercedes locked out the front row again, but an early spin for Ericsson in the race brought out the safety car. They both pitted and Vettel (along with a few others) didn't, so the race was on. Mercedes had pace on fresh tyres, but once Vettel pitted he was able to overtake Rosberg, with Hamilton pitting just ahead of Vettel later on. Mercedes kept pushing to catch the Ferrari, but it wasn't enough and the Italian team took their first win for nearly two years. Raikkonen was 4th in the second Ferrari despite a first-lap puncture, with the Williams pair of Bottas and Massa behind. Toro Rosso followed, Verstappen ahead of Sainz, and Red Bull completed the top 10 with Kvyat and Ricciardo.
Heading to China, Hamilton led with 43 points with Vettel on 40 and Rosberg on 33, as the trio had finished on the podium at the first two races.
It was a fairly average race by 2015 standards, although Rosberg had complained that Hamilton was holding him up. There were a few retirements, but Verstappen's Toro Rosso led to a Safety Car finish. China saw the Australia podium order repeated, with Hamilton ahead of Rosberg and Vettel. It wouldn't be the last time they stood together as a trio on a 2015 podium. Raikkonen finished 4th again, with the Williams pair of Massa and Bottas in 5th and 6th. The top 10 was completed by Grosjean, Nasr, Ricciardo and Ericsson.
Next was Bahrain. Vettel was on the front row ahead of Rosberg, but behind Hamilton who took his fourth pole of 2015. However, it would be Raikkonen who offered Ferrari's main challenge to Mercedes, as Vettel went wide at the final corner mid-race after holding his team mate and Rosberg at bay up to that point. That mistake left the German needing another pitstop to fix his front wing, so he finished 5th behind Bottas. Ricciardo's engine failed at the end, but he managed to finish 6th ahead of Grosjean, Sainz, Kvyat and Massa.
Raikkonen had made good use of a longer stint, but it wasn't good enough to beat Hamilton, They finished ahead of Rosberg to leave Hamilton 27 points clear at the top of the standings. At this point, Mercedes led with 109 points, 52 ahead of Ferrari in 2nd.
Spain was next after the first four flyaway races, and Mercedes were expected to dominate. They didn't disappoint, although it was Rosberg who prevailed this time. His first pole of 2015 helped him to a comfortable win, ahead of Hamilton and Vettel. Bottas and Massa sandwiched Raikkonen, with the top 10 filled by Ricciardo, Grosjean, Sainz and Kvyat. Verstappen was just outside the points in 11th.
After winning the previous race and the last two races in Monaco, Rosberg aimed to put a 2014 Qualifying incident behind him and win again around the principality.
However, it was Hamilton who took pole. He led most of the race and was leading by about 20 seconds when a call to change tyres became his undoing. Mercedes thought he could make the stop and come out ahead of Rosberg, but it wasn't to be. Once the Safety Car returned to the pits, it was single file until the end for the podium. This meant Rosberg won ahead of Vettel and the pitstop-delayed Hamilton, who was only a few seconds of Ricciardo until Red Bull swapped their cars back round - Kvyat let him through on team instructions to see if the Australian could deprive Hamilton of the podium finish. Raikkonen was behind them in 6th, with Perez in 7th. Button scored McLaren's first points of 2015 in 8th, with Nasr 9th. Sainz started from the pitlane after not having his car weighed in Q1 even though he originally qualified 8th, but recovered to 10th in a solid drive for Toro Rosso. As for the other Toro Rosso, Verstappen was given penalty points and a Canada grid penalty for his crash with Grosjean.
At this stage, Mercedes appeared to be in full control of their destiny in the Constructors standings, while Hamilton was now just 10 points ahead of Rosberg. In turn, Vettel was a further 18 points back, so at this stage it seemed these three drivers would fight for the title.
Canada was next, and with three wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (2007, 2010 and 2012) Hamilton was keen to add a fourth after Rosberg's first ever run of consecutive F1 wins.
Qualifying upset the normal order, with both Massa and Vettel unable to progress beyond Q1. However, Button didn't even set a time and was forced to take grid penalties during the race for exceeding the 2015 allocation on some of his power unit components, but given the poor reliability of the Honda this wasn't a surprise, apart from this being only the 7th race of 19.
It was a quick and quiet race (even the wildlife agreed) and Hamilton duly won from pole ahead of Rosberg. Bottas beat Raikkonen, who spun mid-race, to the podium. Vettel recovered to 5th,
After an eventful 2014 race with a last lap crash, there was no repeat this year between Perez and the Massa, whose Williams finished 6th after starting 15th. Maldonado was 7th ahead of Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Grosjean. Perez was 11th for the 15th time in his F1 career, with this being the third time as Number 11 on the permanent car number system.
After a trip across the Atlantic, the next race was Austria - this will be in Part 2.
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Winter testing showed that Mercedes were potentially even stronger than in 2014, with Ferrari and Williams fighting over 2nd and 3rd. It was hard to judge how well some would do due to limited 2015 car running, but it seemed that McLaren would be lucky to regularly score points.
Prior to Australia, McLaren replaced the recovering Alonso (who had a crash in the final test) with Magnussen, who was relegated to third driver role after a year as Button's team mate.
Once the teams had arrived in Australia, it was a mostly uneventful weekend: Qualifying saw Mercedes ahead of Vettel, with Massa close behind. However, Bottas injured his back during Q3, and therefore was unable to race. Manor turned up but didn't set any laps on Friday or Saturday, so they also failed to start. As for race day itself, Kvyat and Magnussen's cars both broke down before taking to the grid, meaning we only had 15 drivers actually on the grid.
Aside a crash at the first chicane (with Maldonado spun into the Turn 2 wall) it turned out to be a relatively processional race, and out of the 15 starters only 11 finished. Amazingly Button was one of them, but his McLaren wasn't fast enough to keep up with the points scoring 10. One of the highlights in this race was seeing Nasr, Sainz and Verstappen (until his car broke down) doing well and proving that rookies can progress quickly at the highest level. Nasr's Sauber stayed out of trouble to take 5th, the best result for a Brazilian on their debut, while Sainz finished 9th for Toro Rosso ahead of Perez.
From top 3 on the grid to podium in the race, we saw Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel finish where they started. Massa was 4th for Williams, however Raikkonen's car broke down mid-race. Ericsson was 8th for Sauber, having moved from the now defunct Caterham towards the end of 2014.
Ahead of the race in Malaysia, Alonso was declared fit and returned for McLaren - proving once again how safety has generally improved in the last 20 years. On race day, we would see Manor start for the first time in 2015 after travelling to Australia but not taking part.
Mercedes locked out the front row again, but an early spin for Ericsson in the race brought out the safety car. They both pitted and Vettel (along with a few others) didn't, so the race was on. Mercedes had pace on fresh tyres, but once Vettel pitted he was able to overtake Rosberg, with Hamilton pitting just ahead of Vettel later on. Mercedes kept pushing to catch the Ferrari, but it wasn't enough and the Italian team took their first win for nearly two years. Raikkonen was 4th in the second Ferrari despite a first-lap puncture, with the Williams pair of Bottas and Massa behind. Toro Rosso followed, Verstappen ahead of Sainz, and Red Bull completed the top 10 with Kvyat and Ricciardo.
Heading to China, Hamilton led with 43 points with Vettel on 40 and Rosberg on 33, as the trio had finished on the podium at the first two races.
It was a fairly average race by 2015 standards, although Rosberg had complained that Hamilton was holding him up. There were a few retirements, but Verstappen's Toro Rosso led to a Safety Car finish. China saw the Australia podium order repeated, with Hamilton ahead of Rosberg and Vettel. It wouldn't be the last time they stood together as a trio on a 2015 podium. Raikkonen finished 4th again, with the Williams pair of Massa and Bottas in 5th and 6th. The top 10 was completed by Grosjean, Nasr, Ricciardo and Ericsson.
Next was Bahrain. Vettel was on the front row ahead of Rosberg, but behind Hamilton who took his fourth pole of 2015. However, it would be Raikkonen who offered Ferrari's main challenge to Mercedes, as Vettel went wide at the final corner mid-race after holding his team mate and Rosberg at bay up to that point. That mistake left the German needing another pitstop to fix his front wing, so he finished 5th behind Bottas. Ricciardo's engine failed at the end, but he managed to finish 6th ahead of Grosjean, Sainz, Kvyat and Massa.
Raikkonen had made good use of a longer stint, but it wasn't good enough to beat Hamilton, They finished ahead of Rosberg to leave Hamilton 27 points clear at the top of the standings. At this point, Mercedes led with 109 points, 52 ahead of Ferrari in 2nd.
Spain was next after the first four flyaway races, and Mercedes were expected to dominate. They didn't disappoint, although it was Rosberg who prevailed this time. His first pole of 2015 helped him to a comfortable win, ahead of Hamilton and Vettel. Bottas and Massa sandwiched Raikkonen, with the top 10 filled by Ricciardo, Grosjean, Sainz and Kvyat. Verstappen was just outside the points in 11th.
After winning the previous race and the last two races in Monaco, Rosberg aimed to put a 2014 Qualifying incident behind him and win again around the principality.
However, it was Hamilton who took pole. He led most of the race and was leading by about 20 seconds when a call to change tyres became his undoing. Mercedes thought he could make the stop and come out ahead of Rosberg, but it wasn't to be. Once the Safety Car returned to the pits, it was single file until the end for the podium. This meant Rosberg won ahead of Vettel and the pitstop-delayed Hamilton, who was only a few seconds of Ricciardo until Red Bull swapped their cars back round - Kvyat let him through on team instructions to see if the Australian could deprive Hamilton of the podium finish. Raikkonen was behind them in 6th, with Perez in 7th. Button scored McLaren's first points of 2015 in 8th, with Nasr 9th. Sainz started from the pitlane after not having his car weighed in Q1 even though he originally qualified 8th, but recovered to 10th in a solid drive for Toro Rosso. As for the other Toro Rosso, Verstappen was given penalty points and a Canada grid penalty for his crash with Grosjean.
At this stage, Mercedes appeared to be in full control of their destiny in the Constructors standings, while Hamilton was now just 10 points ahead of Rosberg. In turn, Vettel was a further 18 points back, so at this stage it seemed these three drivers would fight for the title.
Canada was next, and with three wins at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (2007, 2010 and 2012) Hamilton was keen to add a fourth after Rosberg's first ever run of consecutive F1 wins.
Qualifying upset the normal order, with both Massa and Vettel unable to progress beyond Q1. However, Button didn't even set a time and was forced to take grid penalties during the race for exceeding the 2015 allocation on some of his power unit components, but given the poor reliability of the Honda this wasn't a surprise, apart from this being only the 7th race of 19.
It was a quick and quiet race (even the wildlife agreed) and Hamilton duly won from pole ahead of Rosberg. Bottas beat Raikkonen, who spun mid-race, to the podium. Vettel recovered to 5th,
After an eventful 2014 race with a last lap crash, there was no repeat this year between Perez and the Massa, whose Williams finished 6th after starting 15th. Maldonado was 7th ahead of Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Grosjean. Perez was 11th for the 15th time in his F1 career, with this being the third time as Number 11 on the permanent car number system.
After a trip across the Atlantic, the next race was Austria - this will be in Part 2.
