Australian GP Results - Spoiler Warning

[xvvvz]

McLaren-Mercedes takes 1st with Lewis Hamilton and 5th with Heikki Kovalainen. Nick Heidfeld was second, Nico Rosberg was third and the dreaded Ferdy was fourth. If you missed the race live, it will be rebroadcast in the early afternoon Eastern US time on Sunday by SpeedTV. Just when things got slow in the race back behind Hamilton, something happened to liven things up, so it was a worthy race to watch.

Every Ferrari powered car DNF'd. Awwww...

[xvvvz]

When someone finds out for_sure what happened to HK's car on the last lap, please post. That sucked after he worked so hard to pass the Ferdster.

[picklesam]

Entertaining race, i can't believe kimi made so many mistakes, kubica's race pace was shocking imo, he was 4 secs slower than lewis at one point.

[Big"D"inTheMB]

Originally Posted by xvvvz

Every Ferrari powered car DNF'd. Awwww...

I had the same opinion.

[Astin]

I hope the rules regarding the pitstops during the safety car change. Poor Heiki went from second to second last through no fault of his own. If everybody had to pit under race conditions he would probably have remained second or third. He was just very unlucky.

Kimi looked totally out of control - a terrible day for Ferrari as the whole team seemed to lose their head. I think they were way too over-confident in qualifying and things just got worse from there. It was like Ferrari pre-Shcumacher.

[A&L's300SL]

I just got back from it

Between Massa turning right, right of the track, at the end of the main straight at the start and Kimi, twice cocking up the braking on turn three all by himself it was a hilarious day out.

Lewis did it easy today

Bring on the rest of the 2008 season

[xvvvz]

"I managed to get past Fernando but then as I tore off a visor strip on the main straight I accidentally hit the pit lane speed limiter button and Fernando managed to get past me again."

[Teutone]

My hat off to Lewis Hamilton, he drove a flawless race.
After his awesome start and drive from 15Th to 8Th, I couldn't believe the senseless self destruct mode Raikkonen went in. Almost as if he had a brain freeze after mid race.
And Massa, the less said the better.
I felt very sorry for Kubica and Bourdais, theirs was a valiant effort.
A very unusual race.

P.S. The Formula One Omni Potentates who dreamed up the no fueling permitted (time penalty) rule during safety car intervals have really not thought this through.
With multiple safety car intervals, drivers / teams shouldn't have to make a choice between either running out of fuel on the track (and creating a traffic hazard), or having to pay a 10 second penalty for taking on much needed fuel.
I don't know whether you guys agree, but to me, it doesn't make sense?

[Teutone]

14 - 16 Mar 2008
2008 FORMULA 1 ING AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIXPos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts
1 22 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 58 1:34:50.616 1 10
2 3 Nick Heidfeld BMW 58 +5.4 secs 5 8
3 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 58 +8.1 secs 7 6
4 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 58 +17.1 secs 11 5
5 23 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 58 +18.0 secs 3 4
6 8 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 57 +1 Lap 13 3
7 14 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 55 +3 Laps 17 2
8 1 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 53 Engine 15 1
Ret 4 Robert Kubica BMW 47 Accident 2
Ret 12 Timo Glock Toyota 43 Accident 18
Ret 18 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 32 Transmission 19
Ret 6 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 30 Accident damage 20
Ret 2 Felipe Massa Ferrari 29 Engine 4
Ret 9 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 25 Accident 8
Ret 11 Jarno Trulli Toyota 19 Electrical 6
Ret 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 8 Hydraulics 22
Ret 10 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 0 Accident 14
Ret 16 Jenson Button Honda 0 Accident 12
Ret 19 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 0 Accident 21
Ret 15 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 0 Accident 9
Ret 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 0 Accident 16
DSQ 17 Rubens Barrichello Honda 58 +52.4 secs 10
Note - Barrichello disqualified from sixth place for exiting the pits under a red light.


Interesting, that the Williams Toyota's did better than the big budget Toyota works team.

[manymercsmike]

Lewis drove superbly, managed his tyres well and handled the safety car periods expertly, much as he did last year in Canada. I thought Kubica was going to have a nibble at him after the first SC, but he simply drove away from the BMW.

As for Ferrari - can only echo some of the comments above. Never seen Raikkonen overdrive so much, and despite Brundle's commentary it's doubtful that Massa had the line when running into DC. A "racing incident".

Ferrari had obvious pace (well Raikkonen did anyway) as the one stop fuel load burnt off, but pace is no use if you can't keep it on the road.

Kovaleinen was very unlucky with the SC, and what the hell happened on the main straight after he had outfoxed Alonso? Very disappointing for him.

And the new SC is stunning - you almost wish you get a look at it every race.