The 2019 season got off to an excellent start down under in Melbourne for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team for the Australian Grand Prix with both of their drivers starting on the front row and finishing the race 1st and 2nd, but it was Valtteri Bottas that won the race with his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who started on the pole position, that finished 2nd.  Bottas easily accelerated past Hamilton at the start of the race, before turn 1, to edge past Hamilton and kept the lead for the race.  It was a very sweet, well deserved and very timely victory for Bottas who won the last race of 2017 and last year went without a win.  Hamilton really never got close enough (within 1 second) to use DRS (Drag Reduction System) to try to pass.  For the most part, the new aerodynamic changes implemented for the 2019 season never came into play with the top 6 cars.