Vettel admits: We got lucky

Sebastian Vettel has conceded that he and his Ferrari team were fortunate to take the chequered flag in the opening Grand Prix of the 2018 F1 season in Melbourne, but added that the team will happily accept such a positive start to the campaign.

Starting on pole, Lewis Hamilton looked to be in a comfortable position before a miscalculation involving the Virtual Safety Car and the Mercedes garage allowed Vettel, emerging from the pit lane, to move ahead of the dallying Hamilton.

The German took full advantage, staying there for the remainder of the race, despite a brief Hamilton riposte which ended after a wheel lock nine laps from the finish.

Speaking after the race, Vettel admitted that things had fallen in Ferrari's favour, saying: ""Obviously feeling pretty good.

"We got a bit lucky obviously with the Safety Car. I mean my start could have been better, it didn’t really work so I had to settle for third and then at the end of the first stint I lost a little bit of the connection to Lewis and Kimi ahead.

"I was praying for the Safety Car. There was a car stopped at Turn 4 and I was like ‘no’, and then somebody, a Haas I think, had stopped at Turn 2 and then when I saw it and I was really full of adrenaline – even though the race is frozen, but to come into the pits, everything on the limit to try and get back out.

"They told me it was really close with Lewis. Obviously we were a little bit lucky today, Lewis had a great lap yesterday and he deserved pole position. He drove a good race and controlled it in the beginning. Then as I said we got a bit lucky, but we’ll take it.

"It’s a good start."

Vettel's win would have been all the sweeter following Hamilton's pole on Saturday, after which he claimed he wanted to 'wipe the smile' from the German's face by going fastest.