Lewis Hamilton began the start of his title defence with a victory in the opening weekend of the new season in Australia.

It was a relatively comfortable drive for the defending world champion as he finished ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg in second and Sebastian Vettel in third – who was making his debut for Ferrari after the switch from Red Bull.

Williams driver Felipe Massa finished in fourth place ahead of Sauber’s Felipe Nasr who was in fifth in a wonderful drive from the young Brazilian.

Only 11 cars finished the Australian grand prix on the opening weekend of the season as Kimi Raikkonen, Roman Grosjean, Max Verstappen, Pastor Maldonado, Danii Kyvat and Kevin Magnussen all failed to see the checkered flag. Valtteri Bottas failed to start the race after suffering a back injury before the rain and was told not to race, whilst Manor racing team were unable to have their cars ready for this weekend.

17 cars were due to start the race today, but on the warm-up lap before the race, Danii Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen both failed to make the grid for lights out leaving just 15 cars for the beginning of the race.

After just one lap of the race, Pastor Maldonado was forced off track after turn one forcing the safety car to be released and end the chances of any points. The accident seemed to have come after a collision between the two Ferrari’s, but Raikkonen was clipped from behind by the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz who made contact with Felipe Nasr.

Maldonado’s Lotus teammate Roman Grosjean retired shortly after the safety car due to an engine failure leaving his team with no points from the opening weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t improve on last years performance as he could only manage a sixth place finish in front of his home crowd.

Jensen Button rounded off the weekend by finishing 11th and was the only driver who failed to receive any race points despite the number of retirements. The 2009 world champion said after the race that the team are extremely proud to get one car over the line and that this is their priority before thinking about winning points.

Hamilton finished ahead of Rosberg once more and started the new season just the way he finished it last year and shows just exactly why he is the current world champion. Next up is Malaysia in two weeks.

Full Race standings:

1) Hamilton, 2) Rosberg, 3) Vettel, 4) Massa, 5) Nasr, 6) Ricciardo, 7) Hulkenberg, 8) Ericsson, 9) Sainz, 10) Perez, 11) Button

My season predictions

Drivers Championship: Lewis Hamilton

Constructors Championship: Mercedes

Surprise Package of the year: Felipe Nasr (Sauber)