McLaren's Lewis Hamilton won the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne 5.4 seconds ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton's new team mate Heikki Kovalainen, who led for eight laps and ran second for 21 laps, came home fifth.
After the first of 18 Grands Prix, McLaren lead the Constructors' World Championship with 14 points ahead of BMW Sauber and Williams Toyota with eight points each. Hamilton took the lead in the drivers' ranking with 10 points ahead of Heidfeld (8) and Rosberg (6).
"I feel fantastic - what a dream start to the season and my championship challenge. I am sorry not to have Heikki with me on the podium as a one-two would have been a great reward to the team," Hamilton said after his triumph.
"It's nice to have Nico here though as we have not shared a podium since our karting days with Team MBM (Mercedes-Benz McLaren). It was a super race which I controlled from the beginning."
Team principal Ron Dennis said, "An almost perfect race weekend for us. Lewis drove a faultless race with a strong strategy where his stops were timed in anticipation of possible safety car periods."
It was a different picture at Ferrari as Felipe Massa retired on lap 29, when lying seventh, while Kimi Raikkonen had to stop on lap 43.
Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali said: "This has definitely been a very difficult start to the season and we have got off on the wrong foot. However, we should not react in an over emotional way to this.
"We weren't a phenomenon before and we're not carthorses now. We have to work out exactly what happened to the engines on both F2008s and they are being sent immediately to Maranello for analysis."