RACE REPORT:

By Paul Murtagh



It couldn’t have went better for Kimi Raikkonen on his debut drive for Ferrari. After dominating qualifying he simply drove off into the distance to record his first win for the Scuderia and become the first Ferrari driver to win on his debut for the team since Nigel Mansell in Rio in 1989. He looked dominant all weekend and never looked like getting beaten.

But all the hype before the race was around Lewis Hamilton. Britain’s latest F1 superstar had all the cameras pointing his direction before he arrived in Melbourne, but raised the hype even further after his stunning performance in qualifying. He pushed his team-mate, current world champion Fernando Alonso, very hard and there was very little between them at the end of the qualifying hour. Hamilton’s performance made Alonso push harder and towards the pace of Kimi, yet not enough to qualify ahead of him. BMW Sauber also looked promising after qualifying with the two cars qualifying at the sharp end of the grid although many suspected on a low fuel load compared to the McLaren’s and Ferrari.

At the start Kimi left the line perfectly and lead into the first corner, and was followed by the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld who got past both McLarens off the grid. Hamilton made the better start of the two silver cars and jumped into third with Alonso close behind in forth. Massa, who qualified 16th due to a problem with his gearbox in the second part of qualifying but then started at the back due to an engine change, wasn’t able to make up a lot of places off the grid and was still at the wrong end at the end of the first lap. Meanwhile his team-mate was pulling away from Heidfeld, who pitted early and allowed the two McLarens to move into the podium positions abeit a good bit behind Raikkonen.

Meanwhile in the midfield there was a lot of surprises and disappointments. Super Aguri, who finished at the bottom last year but who were basically running a modified 2006 Honda car, were holding their own in the midfield with Sato keeping pace with the Toyotas of Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. As for the senior Honda team they were really struggling with Barrichello just about hanging onto Sato’s tail and Button languishing down near the Toro Rossos. After so much hype leading upto this season this was a hugely disappointing performance from the Japanese outfit.

Back at the front Kimi pitted first and came out behind the McLarens who had yet to stop. Alonso was the first to stop, meaning that Hamilton led the Australian grand prix on his debut, 11 years after Jacques Villeneuve had achieved the same feat on his debut for Williams. After 5 laps in the lead he pitted, allowing Kimi to re-take the lead and Hamilton re-emerged still ahead of Alonso. Status quo was retained throughout the second phase of the race with only a few dust-kicking moments giving the fans something to get excited about.

It wasn’t until the second round of stops that changes began to happen. Raikkonen made his second stop with no dramas and came out still comfortably in front of the McLarens. But the Macca order was changed. Hamilton was first to come in, but re-emerged behind Takuma Sato who held him up badly and cost the British driver around two second. When Alonso came in for his second stop he was able to come out in front of Hamilton and claim second place. Alonso was therefore able to claim the maximum points available to him considering the dominant Ferrari of Raikkonen.

Raikkonen backed off towards the end under the orders of the Ferrari team, who wanted to save their engine for the heat and humidity of Malaysia, and despite the Finn backing off he managed to keep a comfortable distance to the McLarens. The final piece of action before the end of the race happened between David Coulthard and Alexander Wurz when the Red Bull driver launched an optimistic move from a long way back down the inside of Wurz’s Williams, only for Wurz to close the door and launch the Scot’s car over the Williams and causing both driver to retire.

Raikkonen drove on to take a comfortable win for Ferrari and to lead the championship after the first round. Alonso and Hamilton took the other podium positions with Nick Heidfeld in forth, Fisichella in the Renault in 5th ahead of Massa's Ferrari, and Nico Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher completing the points finishers.

The first race left all the teams with plenty to think about. Ferrari will want to maintain their gap between themselves and the rest of the field, while both McLaren and BMW Sauber will want to close the gap and build on a strong start. As for Honda, Red Bull and Toyota they will want to resolve things quickly and challenge the top teams for honours. If they are able to achieve this then we could have an exciting season on our hands

Driver of the Day: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes)

Team of the Day: McLaren Mercedes

Disappointment of the Day: Honda, Heikki Kovalainen

Overall Race Rating: 6