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Formula 1 Australian GP

Australian Grand Prix race day

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Hamilton is straight down to business and leads by 1.2s from Raikkonen, but they are lapping at a similar pace.
That might have been a strategic move from Hartley and Toro Rosso. He's back out on softs - could they last the entire distance?
Radio Comms
Red Bull urging Verstappen to re-pass Magnussen quickly. "We don't have time for this." Consider the whip cracked...
Bottas hasn't made any progress from his 15th place on the grid, he's still behind Stroll.
Quick pitstop for Hartley and he's back out.
Brilliant start from Magnussen to get the Haas up into fourth.
Hartley pits at the end of lap one, has he picked up damage or is that another problem?
Radio Comms
Toro Rosso is calling Brendon Hartley into the pits.
Alonso trying to go right around the outside of Sainz to take ninth at Turn 13.
Raikkonen had a stab at passing Hamilton for the lead round the outside into Turn 3, but couldn't make it stick.
Information
Order: 1 Hamilton; 2 Raikkonen; 3 Vettel; 4 Magnussen; 5 Verstappen; 6 Grosjean; 7 Hulkenberg; 8 Ricciardo; 9 Sainz; 10 Alonso
Verstappen drops to fifth after trying to pass the Ferrari's into Turn 1.
Hamilton cuts off Raikkonen to lead into Turn 1.
We're go!
Lights on.
The stragglers are just coming into place.
Hamilton slows the pace and lines up on pole.
Green flag
The cars pull off for their formation lap, F1 2018 is effectively under way.

Information
And that means the grid looks like this:

1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
4 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
6 Romain Grosjean (Haas)
7 Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)
8 Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
9 Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault)
10 Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
11 Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren)
12 Sergio Perez (Force India)
13 Lance Stroll (Williams)
14 Esteban Ocon (Force India)
15 Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
16 Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso)
17 Marcus Ericsson (Sauber)
18 Charles Leclerc (Sauber)
19 Sergey Sirotkin (Williams)
20 Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso)
Autosport
One of the big stories of qualifying yesterday was Valtteri Bottas's crash. His weekend hasn't got any better today:

Australian GP: Power unit changes put Bottas on new penalty limit

Valtteri Bottas is already on the bubble for power unit grid penalties ahead of the 2018 Formula 1 season opener after his Australian Grand Prix qualifying crash

Australian GP: Power unit changes put Bottas on new penalty limit
The grid kids prepare for duty

The grid kids prepare for duty

The start of the first grand prix of the 2018 Formula 1 season is 12 minutes away - welcome to our live Australian GP coverage.

By: Geoff Creighton

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