The first race of the year the 2017 Australian Grand Prix has been run, and thank goodness it wasn’t a Mercedes.
Sure those Webber fans who are still bitter about the German’s antics when Mark Webber was his teammate still don’t like him, and would argue he’s no better than Hamilton for arrogance. And not being easy to like.
Either way, it’s not a Mercedes and especially Hamilton winning so happy days for a while.
There were plenty of other good drives. And a disastrous weekend for the Australian Dan Ricciardo. What a surprise, he is Australian, and home record is poo when it comes to a driver being from Australia.
Onto our Good, Bad and Ugly for the 2017 Australian Grand Prix.
For each of the listed below, we assign points to be used for the overall Good, Bad and Ugly for 2017. Where the winner will get the Martini Medal, and the ultimate loser will get the Pedro Chaves Ribbon.
It is one point for Good, one point for Bad, and minus 0.5 for the ugly. The ultimate best and worst of the weekend get a bonus point.
The below have been posted before at the Fox Sports Academy, and to read our thoughts in full, so why not head over there and boost the numbers. To save plagiarising our own stuff we gave to Fox Sports, we have a small summary of the thoughts below.
Follow the full article at the Fox Sports Academy
THE GOOD
SEBASTIAN VETTEL
Winner, and likely Mercedes challenger for the year.
VALTTERI BOTTAS
Expectations were a little low, and he did a good job and gave Lewis Hamilton a hard time in the race.
FELIPE MASSA
Not bad for a man who retired at the end of 2016.
FORCE INDIA / TORO ROSSO
Double points finishes for both.
FERRARI
For giving 2017 a second potential title winning car.
THE BAD
DANIEL RICCIARDO
Couldn’t get much worse. Hopefully we’ve seen the worst for the year.
JOLYON PLAMER
Car issues created another shit weekend for the Briton. Picking up where he left off in 2016.
HAAS
Same for Haas. Shame for Grosjean.
MCLAREN
No better for McLaren, who will be lucky if Alonso hangs around for the end of the season.
THE UGLY
KIMI RAIKKONEN
Not a great start with Vettel winning and far ahead. Fastest Lap when it doesn’t matter sums up his weekend.
RED BULL
They seem as far off the pace as they were worried about. Might improve later and on different tracks.
LEWIS HAMILTON
Maybe a bit harsh, but it would be worrying for him how he couldn’t get the tyres to work, how easy Vettel made a win look, and how close Bottas got to him in the second half of the race. Maybe things won’t be so easy in 2017.
ULTIMATE WINNERS AND LOSERS
Here’s where an extra bonus point is added and subtracted for the very best and very worst. Plus a valuable one point for the Free Practice hero of the weekend, to the driver that got a chance to shine where they normally never get the chance to in big sessions.
WINNER – Sebastian Vettel – first up win and made it look easy really.
LOSER – Daniel Riccardo – the silver lining is it probably couldn’t get much worse.
FP HERO – Antonio Giovanazzi – for last in P3 on bugger all notice and was just 0.2 off Palmer in 19th and a second behind his Sauber team mate. Went even better in Qualifying with 60 minutes experience under his belt.
2017 MARTINI-CHAVES MEDAL FOR GURGLER BEST/WORST OF THE YEAR
DRIVERS
2 Points – Sebastian Vettel
1 Point – Valtteri Bottas
1 Point – Felipe Massa
1 Point – Antonio Giovanazzi
-0.5 Points – Kimi Raikkonen
-0.5 Points – Lewis Hamilton
-1 Point – Jolyon Palmer
-2 Dan Ricciardo
TEAMS
1 Point – Ferrari
1 Point Toro Rosso
1 Point Force India
-0.5 Points – Red Bull
-1 Points – Haas
-1 Points – McLaren
