Australian GP

Kimi Raikkonen of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro wins the Australian Grand Prix from pole today on his debut race for the team. Fernando Alonso finished second place with gap of 7.242 seconds behind the Finn. The rookie Lewis Hamilton finished third after his stunning race debut and finish on podium for his first outing for McLaren. Nick Heidfeld’s finishes third for BMW Sauber F1 Team. Felipe Massa was unable to pass Giancarlo Fisichella and has to be satisfied with sixth place behind the Italian. Nico Rosberg got 2 points for WilliamsF1 and the last point of the race belongs to Ralf Schumacher of Panasonic Toyota Racing.

It was a clean start of the race with Raikkonen leading with Heidfeld second. Alosno was cut off by Heidfeld as the five red lights went off which allowed Hamilton to get in front of the Spaniard. Kubica hold on to fifth place. Fisichella in 6th place, Webber 7th and Schumacher 8th. Felipe Massa who started at the back of the grid after he had an engine changed moved up to 18th place after the first lap.

After lap 5 Barrichello started to feel frustrated. He feels Button who was at 13th place held him back. Massa moved up to 15th place.

Heidfeld who was the only driver on soft compound tyres holding up nicely on second place but brought the gap between him and Raikkonen bigger up to almost 7 secs after 9 laps. But the two McLarens were not really catching up on him either.

Christijan Albers made contact with the barriers at turn 6 at lap 11 which put him out of the race. He is the first casualty of Australian Grand Prix.

Heidfeld went to the pit for schedule pitstop at lap 14 to fill in the fuel. The soft tyres compound stayed at least for the first round of his pitstop. This promoted Lewis to second place and Alonso third. Heidfeld get back on the track behind Webber in 7th place. Barrichello managed to pass Button on lap 15 and put him on clear air to catch up Nico Rosberg.

Massa passed Button on lap 16 and he’s concentrating to close the gap to the top ten drivers.

Raikkonen leads to 15 second off both McLaren. The Finn made his schedule pitstop on lap 18, earlier than everyone expected which put Lewis as the race leader on his race debut for McLaren. He came out behind Kubica on 4th place.

McLaren ready for Alonso’s pitstop on lap 22 and Hamilton on lap 23. It was an impressive run from Hamilton who ran for qualifying with more fuel than Alonso. Its was pretty nip and tuck between those two. With both McLarens went in the pits, Raikkonen lead the race once again.

After the first round of pitstop the placing for top eight were: Raikkonnen, Hamilton, Alonso, Kubica, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Schumacher and Rosberg.

Speed who had problems with understeer and went wide on lap 28. He was the third casualties of the race.

Button gets a drive through penalty because he was speeding in the pitlane when he made his first pitstop on lap 30. This put him at the back of the grid and was once again has to fought his way up the grid.

Kubica slowed down on track on lap 37 and went limping to the pit garage. He evidently went out of the race. It looked like he got problem with his gearbox. This put Heidfeld behind him to 4th place.

Raikkonen went for his final pitstop on lap 41. Hamilton once again led the race from Alonso. 3 laps later Hamilton went for his second pitstop, but was badly held up by Sato in the Super Aguri. This cost him the second place for the race and just have to settled for third.

At lap 51, Coulthard had an accident with Wurz. The Austrian didn’t saw the Britton coming and the inevitable happened putting both of them out of the race.

Massa, the only driver who opted the one stop strategy, finished 6th. His car however was not as fast as his team-mate Raikkonen.

Fastest lap of the race goes to Kimi Raikkonen in Scuderia Ferrrari Marlboro with 1:25.235 seconds.


p/s: There will be no report for Malaysian GP as I'll be covering the event first hand.

Posted in: formula one