Kimi Raikkonen stormed to his 20th career win and the 1st of the 2013 season after a moderately quiet Australian Grand Prix.
The story once again revolved around tyre management and race strategy as Raikkonen completed a two-stop race while managing the wear on his Pirelli's very accurately. Consistency was the key to his form last year, and it looks as though he's immediately found his form. Last year he scored some very reasonable points after starting in 17th following a qualifying blunder, this year he capitalised on P7 after a signature Kimi start allowed him to slot into 4th after a couple of turns.
Pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel reminded us of how dangerous Newey's RB9 can be be setting off quite far early on, but a surprise chaser emerged from the pack, Felipe Massa managed to turn down a 2s lead to actually leading the Grand Prix at a point. He was followed by Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso the whole way who eventually managed 2nd behind Kimi and in front of Vettel in 3rd.
Vettel ultimately couldn't keep up with the pace of Raikkonen and Alonso, but his downfall came from the biggest surprise for another driver. Returning Force India driver and resident thug Adrian Sutil managed to hold the 3-time world champion up for a number of laps before he had to make his stop. Force India's form from last season has evidently continued as he was race leader for a while, a similar incident happened in Brazil with Nico Hulkenberg, who now driving for Sauber didn't get to start the race due to a fuel pump failure.
As I predicted earlier, Mercedes had a disappointing day, despite Lewis Hamilton's 5th place. Although 10 points is a hell of a good haul, he dropped from P3 on the grid, and team mate Nico Rosberg had to retire from the race. I did say Mercedes have been highly over hyped already this season, and it doesn't look as if it'll improve soon. The greatest low from the weekend falls to McLaren who only managed to collect 2 points following Jenson Buttons 9th place finish.
Their [McLaren] mishap in building an entirely new car has backfired massively on them. Sergio Perez had attempted to complete his feat of recovering a poor qualifying position into a podium, but no such luck today as Checo made a very shaky start to his McLaren debut. His lack of pace was so astonishing that eventually he just let people overtake him, he obviously has no confidence in the car. The feeling is reciprocated with his team mate. Button had to come in on lap 4 to change his already badly worn tyres. The Woking team needs to get it together right now if they are to recover anything, or they will finish behind Lotus and maybe Mercedes.
Albert Park is not well known for it's overtakes and there was no change in story today, but Raikkonen completed an outside overtake on Hamilton in the opening laps that was just sublime.
Unlike his result in Abu Dhabi last year, Kimi did not just inherit the race, he worked hard for it, yet he described the win as "easy." He is showing massive confidence already and 67% of season opening winners go on to win the championship. The odds are in his favour and my money is fully on Raikkonen at this point. However, it will not be an easy ride.
Final Standings (©
Autosport)
1. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1h30m03.225s
2. Fernando Alonso Ferrari + 12.451s
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 22.346s
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari + 33.577s
5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes + 45.561s
6. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault + 46.800s
7. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1m05.068s
8. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1m08.449s
9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1m21.630s
10. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 1m22.759s
11. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes + 1m23.367s
12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m23.857s
13. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault + 1 lap
15. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth + 1 lap
16. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault + 2 laps
17. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps
18. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault + 2 laps
Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1m29.274s
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 40
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 26
Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 25
Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1
World Championship standings, round 1:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Raikkonen 25 1. Ferrari 30
2. Alonso 18 2. Lotus-Renault 26
3. Vettel 15 3. Red Bull-Renault 23
4. Massa 12 4. Mercedes 10
5. Hamilton 10 5. Force India-Mercedes 10
6. Webber 8 6. McLaren-Mercedes 2
7. Sutil 6
8. Di Resta 4
9. Button 2
10. Grosjean 1
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