Hamilton led the Australian Grand Prix off the line, but was hassled by Vettel throughout the opening stint and eventually came in for his only stop 17 laps into the 57-lap race.

He was instantly on the pace with the set of fresh softs, but soon found himself stuck behind Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen. He was told passing the Dutchman was "race critical" and replied: "I don't know how you expect me to do that."

As Vettel pitted from the lead a few laps later, he emerged right ahead of the battling duo, completing a successful 'overcut' and going on to comfortably win the race.

In the podium interviews, runner-up Hamilton explained the early stop: "In the race we struggled with the tyres. I had to stop earlier as we ran out of grip. We pitted and got stuck behind one of the Red Bulls."

The Briton elaborated further in the post-race press conference: "We were struggling with the grip from the get-go, Seb was able to always answer the laptime - and the majority of the time he would do faster laptimes.

"Towards the end, I got in traffic and started to overheat tyres and struggle with grip. The gap was closing up and I was slowing down.

"I came in and got stuck in traffic - which is a bit unfortunate, but that is motor racing."

Bottas says Ferrari "no doubt" quicker

Mercedes newcomer Valtteri Bottas had followed the Hamilton/Vettel battle early on, but soon dropped off, going on to a third-place finish on his debut with the Silver Arrows.

And just like his teammate Hamilton, the Finn reported he was missing grip in the opening stint on ultrasofts.

"We as a team we did a good job with the car we have," Bottas said. "Ferrari was quicker today – there is no doubt about that. They did a great job and better job for this race.

"From my side, the main thing was first stint, I struggled quite a lot with ultrasoft, felt I was sliding around, missing front grip and rear grip, especially after 10 laps, that wasn't easy.

"But once we put the soft tyre on, it was actually quite a good feeling, really nice to drive. But it was a bit too late and we're still missing pace.

"Overall, not a disaster first race weekend with the team but I do have points I will take to do better next time."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble