Kimi Raikkonen upstaged the established order to claim a resounding victory for Lotus in the season-opening Australian Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday, writes Robert Smith.
The taciturn Finn roared off from seventh on the starting grid to take a forward position, and employed a strategy of only two stops to take the race from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull world champion Sebastian Vettel.
For Raikkonen, 33, who won the 2007 world championship with Ferrari before taking two years out to drive in rallying, it was his 20th GP triumph.
It was the Finn’s second triumph when he won the 2007 Australian race on his way to securing the world drivers’ title.
Raikkonen had the luxury of an easy run in the closing laps to the finish line and beat Alonso by 12.4secs, with Vettel a further 9.8secs away in third.
Alonso’s Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, of Brazil, was fourth, with Britain’s Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes fifth and Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull sixth.
Raikkonen won the race despite only coming into the pits for two tyre changes compared to three employed by his rivals.
It was a great day for the legendary Lotus, which took over the Renault team last year when Raikkonen won the Abu Dhabi GP near the end of the season.
“I believe my car is quite good, it’s been feeling good all weekend and when we did the longer run it felt good,” Raikkonen said. “We knew that if the front tyres were lasting we would be fine. I was confident, but you have to get through the start and the first lap and it’s the first race, so you never know what’s going to happen.
“I felt I had the car and it turned out to be pretty good.”
Vettel, who had the fastest car from qualifying and started off the pole, said tyre degradation cost him his chance of victory as he searches for his fourth straight world championship this season.
“Clearly when you start from pole you want to win as well but we could see after a very good start and after the first two or three laps the tyres were starting to fall apart and we couldn’t go as long as other people,” Vettel said.
Alonso said that after difficult starts for Ferrari over the previous two seasons he was delighted to get onto the podium in the season-opener.
“This year it feels very different and we feel much more optimistic and the car is responding well, we are competitive, so we have a very interesting season ahead of us.”
The 2008 world champion Hamilton, having his first race with Mercedes after splitting with McLaren, said his fifth place was better than his new team had expected coming to Australia.
“The car felt really good out there. I had a strong first stint and was able to make the supersofts (tyres) last longer than most of the others,” Hamilton said.
“The important thing is that we have a car that we can really work with and the team have done a fantastic job to get us to this position, and now we’ll look forward to Malaysia next weekend and hopefully build on this positive start.”
Eighteen cars finished the 58-lap race around the Albert Park street circuit with two retirements by Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo, while Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldonado both encountered car trouble and could not rejoin the race.
The second race will be at Sepang in Malaysia next weekend. Race three will be staged in China on April 14 before the F1 party arrives in the kingdom for the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix on April 21 for the season’s fourth sizzling session.
Team by team analysis (listed in championship order)
FERRARI (Fernando Alonso 2, Felipe Massa 4)
Alonso started the season on the podium, a big improvement on last year where he finished fifth. Both drivers made three stops, starting on super-softs. Massa continued the resurgence he showed at the end of last year and might have got on the podium too had he brought forward his second stop.
LOTUS (Kimi Raikkonen 1, Romain Grosjean 10)
Raikkonen’s 20th career win, equalling compatriot Mika Hakkinen’s tally, and second of his comeback. His first in a season-opener since 2007, when he took his title with Ferrari. The first win in an opener by a team called Lotus since 1978, when Mario Andretti won in Argentina. Raikkonen made just two stops and said it was probably one of his easiest wins. Grosjean said something felt wrong with his car.
RED BULL (Sebastian Vettel 3, Mark Webber 6)
Triple champion Vettel started on pole but the car proved too aggressive on the tyres during the race. Webber started alongside on the front row but car-to-pit telemetry problems on the grid and an ECU-related KERS failure meant he was on the back-foot right away. The Australian also had a slow pitstop due to a front jack failure.
MERCEDES (Lewis Hamilton 5, Nico Rosberg retired)
Hamilton started third but could not hold on to that placing, slipping back down the order and fighting a good battle with Force India’s Sutil. Still a promising Mercedes race debut for the 2008 champion, who made three stops. Rosberg retired with an electrical problem on lap 27 while in third place. He had been on a two-stop strategy.
FORCE INDIA (Adrian Sutil 7, Paul Di Resta 8)
Sutil grabbed his second chance with both hands in his comeback race after a year away, leading the race on two occasions. He started on the medium tyres and a two-stop strategy. Di Resta lost time behind three-stoppers at the start of his second stint.
MCLAREN (Jenson Button 9, Sergio Perez 11)
Button, winner three times in the past four years in Melbourne, felt he had got the most out of a car struggling for pace. His meagre haul took his career points tally to 1,001. Perez made his debut for the team in 15th place on the grid. The Mexican has now not scored in seven successive races. Both drivers did three pitstops.
TORO ROSSO (Jean-Eric Vergne 12, Daniel Ricciardo retired)
Vergne went through a gravel trap at the start, from 13th on the grid, but was in a scoring position until the closing laps. Ricciardo retired from his home race with an exhaust problem.
SAUBER (Esteban Gutierrez 13, Nico Hulkenberg did not start)
Gutierrez was the highest finisher of the five rookies, fighting back from 18th on the grid. Hulkenberg qualified 11th but did not start after a fuel system problem was detected.
WILLIAMS (Valtteri Bottas 14, Pastor Maldonado retired)
A solid race debut for Bottas, who started on the super-soft option tyres. Maldonado started 17th and was the first retirement after beaching his car in the gravel.
MARUSSIA (Jules Bianchi 15, Max Chilton 17)
A solid debut for both rookies. Chilton made contact early on with Van der Garde’s Caterham and had to make a long pitstop for a new front wing.
CATERHAM (Charles Pic 16, Giedo van der Garde 18)
Pic made two stops, Van der Garde three. The Dutchman had a slow puncture on his second set of tyres.
