Australia

2008 Race Report : Hamilton wins action-packed season-opener

Lewis Hamilton got his bid for the world title off to the perfect start as he won a highly eventful season-opening Australian Grand Prix in consummate style.

The McLaren driver had to keep his composure through three safety car periods to seal his fifth Formula 1 victory, but was in a class of his own at the front.

Ferrari, by contrast, endured a nightmare race from start to finish, as elementary driver errors from both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, reliability problems and a collision meant it left Melbourne with one solitary point.

The Italian squad’s travails gave two other teams a rare look-in on the podium.

BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld drove a typically consistent race to take the runner-up spot, while a delighted Nico Rosberg claimed his maiden F1 podium with a hard-charging third place for Williams.

The first start of the post-launch control era lived up to expectations for drama and incident – eliminating five drivers from contention and necessitating a safety car deployment.

Hamilton and fellow front-row starter Robert Kubica got safely through turn one but Massa got too close to Heikki Kovalainen, pinched his car to the inside and looped the Ferrari on the exit.

There was further commotion behind, triggered by contact between Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel, and Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India was sent flying through the air.

Anthony Davidson and home favourite Mark Webber were both caught up in the melee.

At the restart Hamilton immediately set about stamping his authority on the race, pulling out a 1.5s lead over Kubica on the first flying lap.

He added to that margin relentlessly over the rest of the opening stint, extending it to 3.1s by lap six and 6.7s by lap nine as Kubica began to struggle with tyre degradation.

The Pole made an early first stop at the end of lap 16, by which time Hamilton – setting fastest lap after fastest lap – was 12s up the road.

The Briton relinquished the lead two laps later to team-mate Kovalainen, who enjoyed a four-lap stint out front on his first outing for McLaren.

Heidfeld and Rosberg, running in close company 10s behind Kovalainen, pitted together and traded places thanks to slick work from BMW.

The flurry of pit stops promoted Raikkonen, who had started brimful of fuel from his midfield grid position, to third.

A collision between the sister Ferrari of Massa and David Coulthard ended the Scot’s race and brought out the safety car again on lap 27 – ironically working in Raikkonen’s favour by eliminating his deficit to the leading McLaren duo.

But the Finn squandered that blessing at the restart, when he braked far too deep for turn three while trying to get past his countryman Kovalainen and took a trip across the gravel.

Then, to compound Ferrari’s woes, Massa came to a stop almost simultaneously with apparent accident damage.

Raikkonen later lost more time when he spun again at the same corner after dropping a wheel onto the grass under braking.

By this stage the sweltering heat and first race glitches were really taking their toll on the machinery and the field had been culled to half its original size.

Hamilton continued on his serene way, however, building a comfortable cushion over Kovalainen and never looking under the slightest pressure.

His biggest concern was the safety car periods that were regularly negating his lead.

The third appearance of the Mercedes SL 63 AMG was triggered by a huge accident for Timo Glock.

The German, driving well on his return to F1 after a four-year absence, ran wide in the fast turn 12 and bounded over an access road, which launched his Toyota high into the air and littered the track with debris.

The full-course yellow was ill-timed for Kovalainen, who was running longer on fuel than his main rivals and hadn’t yet made his second stop.

By the time the pit lane was opened, the rest of the pack had queued up behind the Finn’s McLaren and he fell to the back after taking on service.

Hamilton duly reassumed the lead from Heidfeld, Rosberg and F1 rookie Sebastien Bourdais, who had quietly moved up the leader board and benefited from a perfectly timed pit stop.

Kubica had struggled through the middle stint with bad tyre wear on the soft Bridgestones, lapping more than two seconds slower than Heidfeld in the sister F1.08.

His hopes of a decent result were finally dashed when he was clouted by an over-eager Kazuki Nakajima at turn 15, causing terminal damage to the BMW and forcing the Williams driver to pit for a new nose cone.

The stewards blamed Nakajima for the shunt, and the Japanese newcomer will take a ten place grid penalty in Malaysia next weekend.

Over the closing laps Bourdais calmly soaked up the pressure from a trio of faster cars: Fernando Alonso’s Renault, Kovalainen’s McLaren and Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

Then Alonso began to struggle for tyre life and had his work cut out fending off Kovalainen, allowing Bourdais to eke out a small cushion.

The Alonso/Kovy dice provided some cracking entertainment as this extraordinarily eventful race drew towards its climax.

Heikki appeared to have settled the matter when he got better traction out of turn 13 and planted his McLaren inside an ever-shrinking gap going into the following corner.

But having done the difficult bit to perfection, he then inadvertently flicked his pit lane speed limiter on along the pit straight and was powerless as Alonso gratefully accelerated past him again!

Meanwhile Raikkonen had retired with a sick-sounding engine, completing a truly miserable day for the Scuderia.

His wasn’t the only Ferrari power plant to give up the ghost, as Bourdais’ Toro Rosso expired just three laps from home when he seemed set for a remarkable fourth place finish.

So Alonso and Kovalainen took fourth and fifth places behind the victorious Hamilton, Heidfeld and Rosberg.

Rubens Barrichello finished sixth on the road after a fine drive for Honda marred by a botched final pit stop when he was released from his stall while the fuel hose was still attached.

Several mechanics were mowed down as he accelerated away but fortunately all escaped serious injury.

The beleaguered Honda team was denied three morale-boosting points, however, as Barrichello was disqualified for ignoring a red light as he left the pit lane.

Nakajima, the final finisher, therefore inherited sixth and scored his first world championship points.

Such was the attrition that Bourdais and Raikkonen were classified seventh and eighth respectively despite not making it to the chequered flag.


Australian GP result, Albert Park - 58 laps

1.  HAMILTON      McLaren       1h34m50.6s
2.  HEIDFELD      BMW           +5.5s
3.  ROSBERG       Williams      +8.2s
4.  ALONSO        Renault       +17.2s
5.  KOVALAINEN    McLaren       +18.0s
6.  NAKAJIMA      Williams      +1 lap
7.  BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    +3 laps
8.  RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       +5 laps
9.  KUBICA        BMW           +11 laps
10. GLOCK         Toyota        +15 laps
11. SATO          Super Aguri   +26 laps
12. PIQUET        Renault       +28 laps
13. MASSA         Ferrari       +29 laps
14. COULTHARD     Red Bull      +33 laps
15. TRULLI        Toyota        +39 laps
16. SUTIL         Force India   +50 laps
17. VETTEL        Toro Rosso    +58 laps
18. BUTTON        Honda         +58 laps
19. WEBBER        Red Bull      +58 laps
20. FISICHELLA    Force India   +58 laps
21. DAVIDSON      Super Aguri   +58 laps
DQ. BARRICHELLO   Honda

Fastest lap: KOVALAINEN  1m27.418s


Season 2008

STR4 unveiling pics

STR4 unveiling pics

See the new Toro Rosso on track and close-up in the pit lane from its Barcelona launch

2009 cars on track

2009 cars on track

Check out the first on-track photos of the 2009 contenders at Portimao and Valencia

Tickets and Tours

Tickets and Tours

Get ahead and buy your tickets and travel for the 2009 Formula 1 season here

Race of Champions

Race of Champions

Watch video of Schumacher on the RoC, Vettel on 2009 and DC on fatherhood