Formula One leaves Melbourne and heads to Bahrain with spirits lifted by an incident-packed season-opener following Saturday’s disastrous qualifying.
The new-look qualifying format is now to be scrapped for Bahrain on April 3 after a system designed to increase excitement fell flat when drivers stayed in the pits having set a time in the final session.
“We wanted to improve the show and we went in the wrong direction,” Mercedes F1 head Toto Wolff said.
The qualifying anti-climax was soon forgotten in a dramatic Australian Grand Prix race won by Nico Rosberg ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel third.
Hardly any surprises in that podium line-up in what at first glance seems a repeat of an often dull 2015 season. But “there was bedlam on the way there in this action-packed curtain-raiser, one which points to a brighter season for the sport,” as Britain’s Telegraph pointed out.
The biggest talking point at the Albert Park circuit was the huge crash on Turn 3 of lap 18 in which Fernando Alonso was able to walk away unharmed from the wreckage of his McLaren.
His survival was the biggest reason of all for F1 to be in good heart following the first weekend of the 21-race season.
Alonso admitted he was lucky to be alive and cited improved safety measures in F1 which has seen many fatalities over the years, with Jules Bianchi in 2015 following a 2014 crash the most recent.
 “I was in the car flying and bouncing around - I could see the sky, then the ground, then the sky again,” Alonso said.
The red flag which then interrupted the race may have compromised Vettel, who had got off to a flying start from third on the grid, with teammate Kimi Raikkonen close behind.
But after the Alonso crash and a safety-car restart, Ferrari stayed with their tyre plan while Hamilton and Rosberg changed to a one-stop strategy using the harder medium compound, which paid off in the end.
Rosberg has made it four wins in a row, following victories on the last three races last season, in his bid to get the better of Hamilton after twice finishing runner-up to the Briton.
But both Mercedes drivers are more wary of the Ferrari challenge as the Formula One caravan moves on.