By Simon Wright
 |
| Kimi Raikkonen tastes the bubbly after triumphing in Australia |
A stunning
start got the Flying Finn upto fourth from seventh on the grid by the end of
the first lap, and his ability to conserve and push when required on the Pirelli
tyres was key to him winning his second race since returning to the sport after
a two-year absence last season.
The
ex-McLaren and Ferrari driver beat fellow world champions Fernando Alonso and
Sebastian Vettel to the top step on the podium.
British drivers Lewis Hamilton, Paul di Resta and Jenson Button all
finished in the points, whilst rookie Max Chilton saw the chequered flag on his
debut for Marussia.
After a
baking hot day on Friday, the weather changed Down Under on Saturday, with the
qualifying session postponed due to heavy amounts of rain and standing water
after Q1. At around 12.30am UK time on
Sunday, Vettel claimed another pole position with team-mate and local hero Mark
Webber making it an all-Red Bull lockout of the front row of the grid.
 |
| Sebastian Vettel led off the line, but he wouldn't win the opener |
Later, a KERS
issue was revealed as the cause of another poor opening to his championship,
and he made little impact afterwards, finishing a disappointing sixth.
Felipe Massa
charged into second place off the grid, and hunted down Vettel, with Alonso
being forced to sit in behind. Cars
started pitting off the degrading super soft tyre inside six laps, and it soon
became a question of strategy and who could manage their tyres the best.
The Ferrari
and Red Bull cars were heavier on tyre wear, but Alonso managed to leapfrog
past both Vettel and Massa in the second round of pitstops. However, Raikkonen managed 25 laps on the
medium compound rubber in his second stint, putting him in prime position to take
the opening laurels.
Mercedes
attempted a two-stop strategy for Lewis Hamilton, and he was a podium contender
throughout. Unfortunately for the Brit,
he flat-spotted his left-front tyre badly when having a juicy dice for position
with Alonso on lap 31.
This meant an
emergency earlier than planned second stop, and hence a switch onto a three stopper. Team-mate Nico Rosberg didn’t get as far as
this. He dropped out just before
half-distance with an electrical problem.
Raikkonen had
the race and the gaps under control, and when his nearest pursuers pitted as
early as lap 38 to make their third stops, the event was his to lose. He duly reeled off the final laps in
effortless fashion to cross the line 12 seconds clear of Alonso.
Afterwards,
he told podium interviewer Martin Brundle of how comfortable he
felt the race had gone.
Raikkonen
said: “That was our plan before the race and I was pretty confident that the
tyres would be okay.
“I had doubts because
this is the first race and you don’t know how it is going to go. I didn’t do any long runs over the winter,
but I knew I had a good car and a feeling it was going to be a good race for
us.”
Raikkonen won
this race back in his championship year of 2007, and statistics from recent
years suggest the winner of the opening race has a great chance of going on to
win the championship.
The prestigious
Red Bull pace of practice and qualifying was missing, but third place for
Vettel was still a solid start to his championship defence. It does suggest that his dominating year of
2011 was just a one-off.
Massa was a
fine fourth, followed by a buoyant Hamilton who was fifth on his Mercedes bow.
He said to Natalie
Pinkham from Sky Sports F1: “I’m very happy. I think it is way better than expected. The guys have done a fantastic job to have
the pace we had.
“In Malaysia it will be
very tough, but hopefully we can have better pace and a better result.”
Not so upbeat
was his former team-mate Jenson Button, who broke the 1,000 points barrier in
his career, but could manage no better than ninth.
Speaking to
Lee McKenzie from BBC, Button revealed: “We had bad spots last year, but there’s a
lot more to do to get back to the front than last year.
“It was good to get a
couple of points, but it doesn’t really ease the pain. I think we are going to have a tough week.”
McLaren
debutant Sergio Perez missed out on even scoring. 11th was the best he could
achieve, ending up behind Romain Grosjean who was a lacklustre 10th
in the second Lotus.
Ahead of them
all were both Force India cars. Adrian
Sutil led a decent portion of the race on his comeback to the sport and
recorded a fine seventh place result, just ahead of di Resta – who was
disappointed to be told to hold position rather than attack his team-mate in
the final laps.
All five
Formula One rookies finished, with Esteban Gutierrez finishing the highest of
them in 13th. Team-mate Nico
Hulkenberg didn’t even get to start after a fuel leak forced him out before
getting to the grid. It means he has
never completed the first lap of this event in three attempts.
It was a
fascinating start to the season, and Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen have signalled
their intentions clear. However, there
isn’t much time to bask in the glory, with Malaysia just seven days away.
2013 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
RESULT
|
|||||
Pos
|
Driver
|
Team
|
Laps
|
Time/Reason
|
Grid
|
1
|
Kimi
Raikkonen
|
Lotus
Renault
|
58
|
1hr
30min 03secs
|
7
|
2
|
Fernando
Alonso
|
Ferrari
|
58
|
12.4secs
|
5
|
3
|
Sebastian
Vettel
|
Red
Bull Racing Renault
|
58
|
22.3secs
|
1
|
4
|
Felipe
Massa
|
Ferrari
|
58
|
33.5secs
|
4
|
5
|
Lewis
Hamilton
|
Mercedes
GP
|
58
|
45.5secs
|
3
|
6
|
Mark
Webber
|
Red
Bull Racing Renault
|
58
|
46.8secs
|
2
|
7
|
Adrian
Sutil
|
Force
India Mercedes
|
58
|
1min
05.0secs
|
12
|
8
|
Paul
di Resta
|
Force
India Mercedes
|
58
|
1min
08.4secs
|
9
|
9
|
Jenson
Button
|
McLaren
Mercedes
|
58
|
1min
21.6secs
|
10
|
10
|
Romain
Grosjean
|
Lotus
Renault
|
58
|
1min
22.7secs
|
8
|
11
|
Sergio
Perez
|
McLaren
Mercedes
|
58
|
1min
23.3secs
|
15
|
12
|
Jean-Eric
Vergne
|
Scuderia
Toro Rosso Ferrari
|
57
|
1min
23.8secs
|
13
|
13
|
Esteban
Gutierrez
|
Sauber
Ferrari
|
57
|
1
Lap
|
18
|
14
|
Valtteri
Bottas
|
Williams
Renault
|
57
|
1
Lap
|
16
|
15
|
Jules
Bianchi
|
Marussia
Cosworth
|
57
|
1
Lap
|
19
|
16
|
Charles
Pic
|
Caterham
Renault
|
56
|
2
Laps
|
22
|
17
|
Max
Chilton
|
Marussia
Cosworth
|
56
|
2
Laps
|
20
|
18
|
Giedo
van der Garde
|
Caterham
Renault
|
56
|
2
Laps
|
21
|
R
|
Daniel
Ricciardo
|
Scuderia
Toro Rosso Ferrari
|
39
|
Broken
Exhaust
|
14
|
R
|
Nico
Rosberg
|
Mercedes
GP
|
26
|
Electrics
|
6
|
R
|
Pastor
Maldonado
|
Williams
Renault
|
24
|
Spun
Off
|
17
|
DNS
|
Nico
Hulkenberg
|
Sauber
Ferrari
|
Fuel
Leak
|
11
|
|
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