Fernando Alonso admitted he was lucky to be alive after the spectacular collision with Esteban Gutiérrez’s Haas which was the abiding image of the season’s opening grand prix here in Melbourne. As Alonso’s McLaren ploughed into a wall, then through a gravel trap and rolled through the air, spectators feared the worst.  Related: Fernando Alonso survives horrific F1 crash – in pictures  Amid concern about Alonso’s wellbeing it went unnoticed initially that the accident would be the pivotal moment of the race, for it led to the red flag and safety car that prompted Ferrari’s tactical blunder that cost them their good chance of winning. Mercedes secured a one-two finish, Nico Rosberg winning from Lewis Hamilton.  Alonso walked away unscathed from his pulverized car with something approaching nonchalance, though that was not the way the Spaniard was thinking at the time.  “I am lucky to be here and thankful to be here,” said Alonso. “I am aware that today I spent some of the luck remaining in life. I want to thank McLaren and the FIA for the safety of this car. I am alive thanks to the job of the last 10-15 years in Formula One.  “I was flying, so you see the sky then the ground, then the sky, then the ground. You want to stop but it doesn’t stop. It keeps going and going and going. It was quite scary, but at the last moment the car stopped and I had a little space to go out and I said: ‘I will go out quickly because my mother will be watching at home.”’  Alonso had clipped the rear of Gutiérrez at full speed while trying to pass around the outside. Both drivers were taken to the medical centre for assessment and given the all-clear. “I’m sure his marbles are rattled a little bit,” McLaren’s chairman, Ron Dennis, said of Alonso on Sky Sports. The stewards investigated the crash but found neither driver to be at fault.  Related: Nico Rosberg edges out teammate Lewis Hamilton to take Melbourne Grand Prix  The incident on the 17th lap brought a red flag and a delay of 20 minutes before the race restarted behind a safety car. It was only then that it became clear the damage was not only to the McLaren car but to the grand prix itself.  The Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen had burst past Hamilton and Rosberg at the start like a couple of drag racers. Hamilton, the world champion, failed to make the most of his 50th pole position. His was a slow and pensive start, in which was not only overtaken by the Ferrari pair but also by Rosberg, Max Verstappen and Felipe Massa. He was suddenly sixth and did not improve on that until he went past Massa on the fourth lap.  When the race was red-flagged Mercedes went on to medium tyres but Ferrari continued to run supersoft rubber, which meant they would have to stop again before the end of the race.  Vettel was leading and to surrender his track position in a race such as this, where it is difficult to get past, was foolish. Mercedes, meanwhile, continued to plough on with their medium tyres, just as they had done so relentlessly during testing in Barcelona last month; they knew they could trust them.  Vettel said afterwards: “We went for the aggressive route. Maybe with hindsight we could have done something else, but I don’t want to blame anyone. It’s a shame the other car didn’t make it but it is positive.  Related: F1: Max Verstappen calls Toro Rosso strategy a ‘joke’ in expletive-laden tirade  “The team is in good shape, we know we can up our game and put pressure on these guys. You can argue the red flag didn’t help us.”  The Ferrari team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene, said he had felt confident of victory before the red flag. “On the [pit]wall we were confident in all honesty. We were looking at our strategy prediction and we were quite comfortable.”  But then it all went wrong for the Scuderia. Raikkonen retired, his car in flames, while Vettel was unable to pull clear of Rosberg as he strived for the 24-second lead that would have allowed him to come in and retain his advantage. Instead, he pitted on lap 35 of the 57 and Rosberg took the lead.  So Rosberg has started the new F1 season much as he finished the last, when he won the last three races. This was his 15th victory, and his second here in three years.  Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff said: “Overall it’s a very happy moment. I’m very happy for Nico. I don’t think it’s a blow for Lewis because the pace was there and it was the start that compromised him. It will not be a big blow for him.”  Rosberg had had an indifferent weekend. He crashed his car in practice and was outclassed by Hamilton in qualifying. This race was handed to him, but it is difficult to argue with four straight wins.  He said: “It’s early days but it’s the perfect start. We have to keep an eye on the red guys. I was a bit worried when we restarted because I thought the tyres might be a bit cold.”  Hamilton took it rather well. “It was a great race and I loved the fact I had to come from far behind. This time last year I was 25 points behind, so seven behind feels good.”
Fernando Alonso has been given the all-clear by doctors after being involved in a frightening crash at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix