Raikkonen wins season-opening Australian Grand Prix

The 2013 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix is nothing but history now as Kimi Raikkonen has claimed his first win of the new season, getting the Lotus driver off to an ideal start to his 2013 Drivers’ World Championship campaign. Leading convincingly from the front for the best part of the second half of the race, Raikkonen beat the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso to the finish line by a convincing 12.4 seconds, with reigning three-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel finishing third on the podium.

Raikkonen’s long second stint on the Pirelli medium compound tyres proved to be the key decision that would win Raikkonen today’s Grand Prix. Keeping close to the Ferrari’s of Alonso and Massa and the Red Bull of Vettel, Raikkonen pitted just twice whilst everyone around him adopted a three-stop strategy. Preserving his tyres at optimum race level, two stops would prove enough to carry the Finn safely to the finish line.

Rain seemed to be the ‘order of the day’ for qualifying on Saturday and earlier in the day on Sunday, but as the lights went out to start the Australian Grand Prix the track was dry with little chance of any noticeable rain for the upcoming race. The end result was that most teams opted to run the Super-Soft Pirelli compound to start their race – including all top ten cars on the grid. Expected to have little durability in Melbourne, race strategies indicated a three-stop race for most teams; all wanting to get the super-soft stint out of the way as early in the race as possible.

The race itself got off to a clean start with all twenty one cars on the grid making it safely through lap 1. For note – only 21 cars started the race after a fuel system problem on Nico Hulkenberg’s car resulted in Sauber pulling the car out of the race citing ‘safety reasons’.

As seems standard (and almost ‘expected) in modern Formula 1 racing, Sebastian Vettel got off to a strong start, quickly securing himself at the front of the pack. His teammate Mark Webber had was anything less than ideal though – slow off the grid, he was quickly passed by the Ferrari’s of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. Driving in his maiden race for the Mercedes AMG F1 team, Lewis Hamilton’s start from third was short lived as excellent starts from Massa and Alonso meant the Ferrari’s quickly propelled themselves ahead and into contention for the race. Hamilton was then passed quite beautifully by the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen, who quickly exposed the lack of pace Mercedes seem to be struggling with so far, albeit early in the year.

Vettel’s lead was quickly at threat early in the race, as the Ferrari’s of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso bore down on the Red Bull RB9. A quick change in race tactics from Ferrari brought Fernando Alonso in for his second set of medium compound Pirelli tyres a few laps earlier than may have been expected by strategists, and a proceeding fast lap was enough to make Red Bull bring Vettel in for a second time in response. Alonso was too fast at this point, passing Vettel with ease as he left the pit lane; a move that would prove invaluable for the Italian racing outfit – Vettel would never make back the position over Alonso, costing him second place (or higher) as the chequered flag fell.

There was little by ways of ‘racing incidents’ in Melbourne this year, key retirements coming only due to driver error or mechanical fault. Pastor Maldonado, who described his Williams FW35 as "undriveable" after qualifying on Saturday, spun going into turn 1 just before the halfway mark of the race. Beaching the car, he would be forced to retire from the race. A handful of laps later, and Nico Rosberg pulled his Mercedes to the side of the road; an electrical fault which cut the engine power bringing his race to a premature end. The only other retirement of the race came from Toro Rosso who were forced to retire hometown driver Daniel Ricciardo’s car due to an exhaust failure with just less than 18 laps in the race.

Felipe Massa, who seems to have found a new sense of urgency in his driving style in the off-season, drove an impressive and strong race, at times fighting for the lead. Ultimately, the Brazilian would finish in fourth place, scoring valuable world championship points for himself and Ferrari early in the season. Ferrari’s hunt for a Constructor’s World Championship has got off to a strong start, with 30 points being scored between Alonso and Massa, putting Ferrari comfortably in the lead of the championship one race into this nineteen race calendar.

After an impressive maiden outing in the Mercedes W04 in qualifying, Lewis Hamilton’s pace slowly fell off over the course of 58 laps around Albert Park. Hamilton proved he has lost none of the skill he showed whilst driving with McLaren, pushing the Mercedes to the limit and impressing with some stunning overtaking manoeuvres. Alas, without a car capable of matching the pace of today’s front runners, fifth is the best Hamilton could manage; a decent result for the Mercedes team considering Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg was forced to retire with an electrical problem.

Sebastian’s Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber drove an uneventful race; his poor start which threw him down the grid was really the only time Webber was in the spotlight this race. He would finish the race sixth overall, not where he had hoped to finish, but still scoring 8 valuable championship points.

Returning to Formula 1 after a year out of the sport, Sahara Force India’s Adrian Sutil placed seventh after leading the race at for large portions of the race, with teammate Paul di Resta just behind him in eight. Ten points scored for Force India today, who will cherish the points whilst rival teams Toro Rosso, Sauber and Williams F1 were all unable to score even one championship point this weekend.

Lacking pace throughout the entire race, a disappointing outing from McLaren saw both cars of Perez and Button struggle to make any considerable moves. Jenson Button would finish ninth as the chequered flag fell; a full minute and twenty seconds off the pace set by Raikkonen at the front. A quiet day from Lotus driver Romain Grosjean secured the Frenchman tenth place, and the final available World Championship point this weekend.

In other noteworthy drives, Sergio Perez’s maiden outing for the McLaren outfit could only manage eleventh today, whilst Sauber rookie Esteban Gutierrez and Williams rookie driver Valtteri Bottas finished their first Formula 1 races of their careers in thirteenth and fourteenth respectively.

Both Marussia and Caterham cars were also successful in completeing the first race of the season; Marussia’s rookie driver Jules Bianchi finished fifteenth a lap down on the leaders, with Caterham’s Charles Pic, Marussia’s other rookie driver Max Chilton and Caterham’s rookie driver van der Garde closing off the pack, 2 laps down at the end of the race.

Round 1 of the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship has Kimi Raikkonen leading with 25 points, followed by Fernando Alonso with 18 points, and Sebastian Vettel with 15. Ferrari lead the Constructors’ Championship with 30 points, Lotus are just four points behind in second.

The Formula 1 calendar resumes one week from now, March 22 – 24, for the 2013 Formula 1 PETRONAS Malaysia Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur.

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