Kimi takes victory while Hamilton shines

Michael who? Kimi Raikkonen cruised to victory in the season-opening Australian GP to prove that there is life at Ferrari without Michael Schumacher.

The Finn cruised to victory, leading from start to finish in his first race for the team.

Reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso was second, joined on the podium by the astonishing Lewis Hamilton who held off his illustrious team-mate until their second and final pit-stops. It was a superb drive from the youngster, who barely put a wheel off line all weekend, and one which will surely herald the start of a long and successful F1 career.

BMW impressed but were denied a double points finish by Robert Kubica's gearbox failure. However Nick Heidfeld took fourth place, with Giancarlo Fisichella in fifth and a one-stopping Felipe Massa in sixth.

Race Report: It was perfect weather for the start of the Australian GP with an ambient temperature of 22C, a track temperature of 40C and bright sunshine in Albert Park.

Felipe Massa had opted for an engine change and a start at the back of the grid while Christian Albers would start the race from the pitlane. Of the front-runners, only Heidfeld would start on the softer Bridgestone tyre.

As the red lights went out Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri failed to get going and the whole field streamed past - a throttle sensor problem was the likely cause.

At the front Raikkonen led away easily, Nick Heidfeld fancied his chances from P3 on the grid and jumped inside Alonso. Behind them, Robert Kubica got the drop on Lewis Hamilton and the two indulged in a typical GP2 start with Hamilton switching from tight up the inside to wide on the outside to get back past Kubica.

Kubica actually did Hamilton a favour because forcing him out wide meant that he not only swept back past the Pole, he also overtook Alonso who was buried under Heidfeld's rear wing.

For a grand prix that saw four Safety Cars in 2006, there was great orderliness on the opening lap and not much positional change. At the end of the first lap the order was:

Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Hamilton, Alonso and Robert Kubica in 5th place. Giancarlo Fisichella was 6th, Webber 7th, Ralf Schumacher 8th, Sato 9th, Trulli 10th and Heiki Kovalainen 11th. Button had moved up to 13th spot while Felipe Massa was 18th.

At the back of the field Davidson and Albers had a coming together, spinning the Spyker around, though both cars were able to continue.

Immediately Massa tried to make progress through the field but was held up by David Coulthard's Red Bull, while Rubens Barrichello was using all the road and brushing the barriers behind team-mate Jenson Button but, frustratingly, couldn't find a way past.

On Lap 6 Massa looked to have turned the revs up on his Ferrari and cruised past DC on the straight, but he was now stuck behind the intra-Honda battle. At the front, Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had established a four second gap to Heidfeld, who was 2.8 seconds clear of Hamilton with Alonso in close attendance.

Hamilton was clearly pushing hard and on Lap 7 put two wheels of the race track kicking up the dirt, just as Raikkonen lowered the Fastest Lap to 1:27.075.

Jenson Button's small train of Barrichello, Massa and Coulthard continued, but it was noticeable that Massa was positioning his car on the straight to take advantage of clear air through his radiators.

Lap 10, and Raikkonen lowered the Fastest Lap to 1:26.577. His only concern was that his radio had begun to malfunction from the very start of the race and so through the course of the grand prix communication would be difficult and involve a lot of pit boards.

Lap 11 and Christian Albers gained the distinction of being the first retirement of 2007 and for a less than conventional reason. He was trying to fish out an earplug that had come loose in his helmet, missed his braking point and went off the road at Turn 3. With new Safety Car rules introduced this season (and supposedly a 56% chance of having one deployed) the pitlane held its breath to see how the situation would unfold. The answer was that we would have to wait at least for the second race of the season before seeing the new-style SC as Albers' car was wheeled back by the marshals.

By Lap 12 Raikkonen had established a ten second lead and there had been no positional changes in the top ten, though Trulli was clearly being held up behind his Toyota team-mate Ralf Schumacher. At this stage of the season it is clearly not a good idea to give your team-mate an easy ride.

Nick Heidfeld was the first man to pit at the end of Lap 14 and he re-emerged from the pitlane behind Mark Webber. On the same lap Rubens finally got past Jenson and three laps later Massa would pass him, too.

Though there was indecision in the Ferrari pit on exactly when Kimi Raikkonen would be coming in - and as a result on Lap 18 both McLarens were actually faster than the Ferrari for the first time in the race - he eventually came in at the end of Lap 18.

Which left us with a rookie leading the Aussie GP on just the 19th lap of the race! Lewis Hamilton has seemed little fazed by anything F1 has thrown at him so far and leading his first F1 race was just another early career milestone.

Giancarlo Fisichella pitted from 6th place and had a 'moment' with Jarno Trulli when Fisi emerged at the end of the straight, the Toyota trying to drive round the outside of the Renault in Turn 1, but running out of circuit as Fisi let his car slip wide. Robert Kubica pitted a lap later and leapfrogged past Heidfeld to take an effective P4 off the German.

The McLarens pitted on Laps 22 and 23 and Lewis Hamilton kept his place in front of Alonso despite being held up by Spyker's Adrian Sutil (for which he was given a drive-through penalty).

The positions on Lap 26 were then:

Raikkonen leading, 11.7 seconds clear of Hamilton, who was 1.8 in front of Alonso. The Spaniard had a gap of over ten seconds to Robert Kubica in fourth place. Heidfeld was 5th, Fisichella 6th, Kovalainen 7th, Rosberg 8th and Felipe Massa in 9th. These last three drivers had yet to stop for their first pit-stop.

Immediately afterwards Kovalainen and Rosberg pitted together and, unusual for a Renault pit-stop, Rosberg's Williams was able to take advantage and the German overtook Kovalainen at the exit of the pitlane.

Massa finally pitted at the end of Lap 29 and rejoined in 10th place. A lap later and Scott Speed parked his double punctured STR-Ferrari on the infield grass, the second retirement of 2007.

The pit-stop re-shuffle was complete by Lap 32 with Jarno Trulli and Mark Webber losig out massively. While Trulli had been quicker than Ralf, the remaining Schumacher was now 7th while Jarno was back in 11th. Mark Webber, who'd been running in 7th was now down to 14th.

From 13th on the grid Heiki Kovalainen was now up to 9th, but his afternoon was about to get ragged. On Lap 35 he took to the grass, running too quickly in his efforts to get back on terms with Nico Rosberg. Rosberg himself was pressuring Ralf Schumacher for 7th place and on Lap 37 he squeezed past the Toyota at Turn 10.

At which point 7th place became 6th place as Robert Kubica retired his BMW from fourth position with the team's typical problem of this year, a broken gearbox.

Kimi Raikkonen was flying and on Lap 38 he lapped team-mate Felipe Massa, going on to lower the Fastest Lap to 1:26.172. On Lap 40 he reduced it to 1:25.929 and as if to prove a point lowered it to an incredible 1:25.235 on Lap 41.

Kovalainen then spun his Renault on the entry into Turn 1 and gave up 8th place to Felipe Massa.

The closest racing was between the McLaren duo with Fernando Alonso gradually closing up on Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton was about to pit for the second time on Lap 42 when he came up against Takuma Sato doing his usual trick of not looking in his mirrors. That delay, and the fact that Alonso had the fuel to run three laps longer gave the World Champion a clear edge and he was able to rejoin in P2.

Raikkonen's second pit-stop was problem-free, but he had a small off-track excursion between Turns 3 &4 while fiddling with his brake balance and not paying attention. He carried on regardless, just as Mark Webber did, after doing an impressive 360 degree spin in the pitlane without hitting anything.

In a relative drama-free race David Coulthard then gave the TV highlights packagers something to show. He had got ahead of team-mate Mark Webber and was closing fast on the Williams-Toyota of Alex Wurz and decided to take the Austrian going into Turn 3. "I was just too fast for the corner," admitted the Scot afterwards. "I thought it was an opportunity but it turned into not an opportunity."

Wurz didn't give him the room needed for an over-ambitious pass and the Red Bull was launched over the top of the Williams in dramatic fashion, Wurz narrowly avoiding getting an RB3 in the helmet.

The positions on Lap 50 were: Raikkonen leading, 13 seconds clear of Alonso, who had six seconds on Hamilton. Heidfeld followed in fourth, Fisichella was 5th and the one-stopping Felipe Massa was in 6th place followed by Rosberg in 7th, Ralf Schumacher in 8th, Jarno Trulli in 9th and Kovalainen in 10th.

Felipe Massa had got past both Rosberg and Ralf Schumacher by staying out on track in his heavily-fuelled Ferrari - his drive was all the evidence needed that the softer Bridgestone tyre (which teams must run for one stint in the race) could last half a race distance.

Though Massa closed up on Fisichella's fifth place at a great rate of knots, he spent the last five laps trailing the Renault round, sometimes 0.4 back, sometimes 0.3 back, but never finding a way past.

At the flag, Raikkonen backed off to finish just 7.2 seconds clear of Alonso and claim his first win since the Japanese GP of 2005. Alonso was pushed all the way by his team-mate Hamilton who finished an outstanding debut race in third place, the most impressive debut for a Brit in 40 years.

Heidfeld took fourth place while Fisichella was able to hold on to 5th with Massa 6th, Rosberg 7th and a slowing Ralf Schumacher in 8th place

Though the sheer pace of the Ferrari at times looked capable of overwhelming the McLaren there is still a question mark over the cooling ability of the new car. That question mark can easily be removed by the Scuderia at the next race in Malaysia, normally the hottest they'll run all year and a great tester of engines and driver endurance.

It was a perfect start to the Championship for Raikkonen. A few more races like this and his elevation in the Ferrari driver hierarchy will be confirmed.