MOTORSPORT: It can only get better for Dan

Daniel Ricciardo was gutted as all his hopes for his debut with Renault crumbled within seconds, while for reborn, resolute Mercedes man Valtteri Bottas everything went perfectly in the Australian Grand Prix.

After the hoodoo that invariably hits Aussie Formula 1 drivers in their home race, Ricciardo had to content himself that his new German teammate Nico Hulkenberg had shown where Renault’s RS19 is at with a creditable seventh place.

Finn Bottas couldn’t believe it all went so swimmingly for him for an hour, 25 minutes and 27.325 seconds. He notched his fourth victory after a disappointing 2018 in which he was winless and runner-up seven times as teammate Lewis Hamilton stormed to a fifth world title.

Hamilton had upstaged Bottas again in Saturday’s qualifying, taking his eighth pole position in Australia and sixth in a row with a track-record lap, yet for the fourth year in a row he wound up second in Melbourne – 20.8 seconds behind Bottas, who also picked up the new bonus point for fastest lap.

While Mercedes remains top dog, Ferrari failed miserably after having looked the pacesetter in pre-season testing.

The red cars were never on the money at the weekend and Sebastian Vettel and his young new sidekick Charles Leclerc finished almost a minute down in fourth and fifth, running to team orders at the end.

The pressure will be on at Maranello to find some speed in a hurry for the second of the season’s 21 GPs in Bahrain at the end of the month.

Red Bull delivered Honda a podium on the first race outing in their marriage, with Max Verstappen overtaking Vettel and closing on Hamilton at the finish.

It was Honda’s first top-three finish of the V6 hybrid era, indeed its first since 2008 when it was a fully-fledged constructor until the global financial crisis hit.

The Renaults started from the sixth row of the grid, two rows behind where they should have been – and carsales.com.au global ambassador Ricciardo, outqualified by teammate Hulkenberg, was in trouble almost immediately from the off, destroying his front wing.

“I had a run on [Sergio] Perez and for me the inside was the best place to go. I saw him move a bit, so your natural reaction, because he was still in front at that time, was to move a bit more,” Ricciardo said.

"That last bit of movement put my wheel on the grass, but even then I wasn’t concerned if I put two wheels on the grass, as I thought I could still carry the momentum. But pretty much as soon as I went on the grass there was a gutter [actually a tarmac pathway below the level of the grass].”

Ricciardo pitted for a new nose assembly and battled on until mid-race, when Renault retired the car because damage to the barge boards on the sides of the cockpit was wearing the tyres excessively.

“It’s just a shame it was over so quickly,” Ricciardo said.

“I don’t seem to ever really have a good break here.”

The heavy promotional schedule in the lead-up to the race had taken its toll and Ricciardo struggled to produce that trademark smile.

“I think we’re too busy pleasing everyone else and not worrying about ourselves,” he said.

“For sure I’m frustrated, because again it’s like everyone expects so much, but the reality is I’ve got to show up on Sunday and when the race is over in five seconds, whether it’s bad luck or not, I feel like, well, preparation wasn’t where it should be.”

However, Hulkenberg’s six points for seventh place gave Ricciardo some cause for optimism.

“I think we should be a top-eight car all of the first part of the season and then hopefully even better,” he said.

“I think Bahrain is going to be a lot easier. That’s like a holiday week [without such a demanding promotional schedule]. There’s really nothing going on [that week], so I can actually prepare properly.”

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul said qualifying had been “the main negative” for the team in Melbourne.

“We had a number of issues that impacted our potential and starting position,” he said.

“That made Daniel’s first race [with us] complex and we tried to recover positions at the start, but we ultimately had to retire his car due to the damage.

“Nico [Hulkenberg] managed to turn around the situation and had a very strong race. He was very smart and drove a good race,

“We know the car has much more pace than we have shown, especially in qualifying, and it will be the priority of the next race to extract more from the initial platform with a smoother execution across the weekend while we work on our planned upgrades.”

It was a much happier story at Red Bull Racing, the team Ricciardo left after five seasons and seven wins.

“To be able to challenge Lewis at the end of the race and overtaken Seb on-track, which around here is very difficult, is very positive,” said Verstappen.

“And I’m very happy for Honda to finish on the podium.

“Since we started working together [after RBR dropped Renault as its power unit supplier] it has been amazing and I am really enjoying the partnership.”

Honda motorsport boss Masashi Yamamoto was in tears after the race.

RBR team principal Christian Horner said: “I think we’ve over-performed. Honda have given us a great product. The engine’s delivering good power [and] it’s been reliable.

“Max has been able to use that to really good effect. To pass a Ferrari, to be racing wheel to wheel on the straight with them is really positive.

“[Then] to put Lewis under pressure, for pretty much 50 per cent of the Grand Prix it looked like we had a quicker car than him, certainly in the second half ... is really encouraging.”

However, Ricciardo’s replacement at RBR, French youngster Pierre Gasly, finished 11th – behind resurrected Russian Daniil Kyvat in a Toro Rosso with the same Honda engine.