article_snippet: Lewis Hamilton's world championship defence got off to a flying start on Sunday with a crushing victory for Mercedes' in the season-opening Melbourne race as F1 rivals succumbed to a farcical rash of reliability problems.
article_snippet: Lewis Hamilton started from a grid reduced to 15 cars from a possible 20 and cruised to Lewis Hamilton 34th race win with a 1.3sec gap to runner-up team-mate Nico Rosberg.
article_snippet: Lewis Hamilton celebrates Lewis Hamilton Australian GP win in front of second-placed Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel .
article_snippet: Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix following a dominant performance .
article_snippet: Nico Rosberg followed Lewis Hamilton home as Mercedes' picked up where they left off with total domination .
article_snippet: Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg (right) shake hands  after Mercedes' pair finished more than 30 seconds ahead of third .
highlights_snippet: Lewis Hamilton won the opening race of the season in Australia on Sunday .
  
highlights_snippet: Nico Rosberg finished second as Mercedes secured a one-two finish .
  