Valtteri Bottas wins F1 Australian Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton to lead home Mercedes one-two

Valtteri Bottas has won the Formula One Australian Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes continued their domination.

The Finn got off the line superbly to overtake Hamilton at the first corner and never let go of the lead, finishing a massive 25 seconds ahead of the Brit.

Sebastian Vettel, who had won this race in each of the last two seasons, struggled in the closing stages of the race and could only finish fourth after a brilliant overtake from Max Verstappen, who finished on the podium.

Charles Leclerc finished a respectable fifth on his Ferrari debut, but it was terrible day for Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo, who were both forced into retirements in their first race with McLaren and Renault respectively.

Lando Norris, who qualified in an impressive eighth in his very first qualifying session, dropped to 12th to finish outside the points while George Russell was way back in 16th place, some two laps down on Bottas by the end.

It was a tense start which saw Ricciardo run wide and break off his front wing after colliding with an object on the grass, forcing him into an early pit stop.

But the drama was down at the front as Bottas edged ahead of Hamilton, while Leclerc challenged Vettel into the first corner.

From there, the 29-year-old dominated proceedings after the first round of pit stops as Hamilton struggled for grip and pace.

It was Vettel who was the real disappointment as he lost touch with the front two and, after a longer first stint, Verstappen hunted down the German with fresher tyres to snare a place on the podium.

Romain Grosjean would have been disappointed to retire with another loose wheel issue, but team-mate Kevin Magnussen was the best of the rest, finishing in an impressive sixth to get some vital points on the board for Haas.

Full race classification

1 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1hr 25mins 27.325secs, 2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:25:48.211, 3 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:25:49.845, 4 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:26:24.434, 5 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:26:25.555, 6 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:26:54.481, 7 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault at 1 lap, 8 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Alfa Romeo Racing at 1 lap, 9 Lance Stroll (Can) Racing Point at 1 lap, 10 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 lap, 11 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Red Bull at 1 lap, 12 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren at 1 lap, 13 Sergio Perez (Mex) Racing Point at 1 lap, 14 Alexander Albon (Tha) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 lap, 15 Antonio Giovinazzi (Ita) Alfa Romeo Racing at 1 lap, 16 George Russell (Gbr) Williams at 2 laps, 17 Robert Kubica (Pol) Williams at 3 laps

Not Classified: 18 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 29 laps completed, 19 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Renault 28 laps completed, 20 Carlos Sainz (Spa) McLaren 10 laps completed