Lewis Hamilton fought off teammate Nico Rosberg to give Mercedes a dominant victory in the season-opening Australian grand prix in Melbourne on Sunday.

Reigning world champion Hamilton held the upper hand with his faster Mercedes car to beat last year’s race winner Rosberg by 1.3 seconds.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, in his first race drive for Ferrari since switching from Red Bull, finished on the podium in third place just ahead of Felipe Massa in a Williams.

It was all-conquering Mercedes’ eighth straight victory, with their last defeat coming in Belgium last August to Australian Daniel Ricciardo driving a Red Bull, and their 20th race in a row with at least one driver on the podium.

Hamilton, 30, has won seven of the last eight GPs, though this was his first in Australia for seven years. It was the Englishman’s 34th win in his 149th grand prix.

“This is my first win in Melbourne since 2008,” Hamilton said.

“Nico was quick throughout the race. In terms of tyres we did not know how far they could go. When Nico turned up the heat I was able to react which was good.”

Rosberg said Hamilton drove a mistake-free race and was difficult to catch.

“It’s a nice feeling to be second, it’s an awesome start for the team,” Rosberg said.

“Lewis has done a fantastic job, he drove like a world champion all weekend. I’ll give my maximum and try to beat him all year.”

It was a morale-boosting podium finish by Vettel for Ferrari, who were a well-beaten fourth behind Mercedes in last season’s constructors’ championship.

“We can be very proud. We have a great car, there is a lot of work ahead of us to beat these (Mercedes) guys,” Vettel said.

“We want to make sure that life is not easy for these two during the season.”

Brazilian Felipe Nasr finished a plucky fifth ahead of home favourite Ricciardo in a boost to his Sauber team, entangled for much of the week in a distracting legal battle over their driver line-up.