Australian Grand Prix results
Posted by Jamie Hibbard at 7:30AM on Sunday 16 March, 2008 21 Comments
The first contact I had with anyone outside of my brother and his living room this morning was with TG magazine's Bill Thomas, who sent me a text at 4:28am that simply said, 'I hope you're up'.
Of course, I was.
It was with child-at-Christmas like anticipation that I sat on the sofa next to my bro, under a duvet and nursing a cup of tea, waiting for the green lights to go out on the start of the Formula One Melbourne Grand Prix. And before we knew it, there were cars flying all over the track...
I'm never really one to say I told you so, but Ferrari's Felipe Massa does seem to be showing signs that he's having problems with no driver aides to help him this year. Going off at the first turn was slightly, well, embarrassing to say the least, but then I imagine that in a bar somewhere in Melbourne right now, most of Ferrari are all somewhat embarrassed, having seen neither car even finish the race, let alone win it.
So we were all wrong on that, and although the red cars obviously have the pace to be challenging for wins, the reliability and driver issues that were thrown up this morning will definitely be more than a concern for new team boss Stefano Domenicali.
I don't remember the last time Kimi Raikkonen made so many errors during a race, but out-braking himself into a corner trying to put a move on Heikki Kovalainen was super unexpected. Maybe he's now too comfortable in the Ferrari cockpit?
Unexpected team performances aside, Lewis did a brilliantly dominant job, and the only problem with that is that TV directors don't find it exciting enough to broadcast a lone car out front all on his own, so we didn't see him too much.
But what we did see of him speaks of a man who has his act together and is going to do everything he can to win the drivers' championship this year. He dealt supremely under Safety Car conditions, he flawlessly executed pit stops and hell, was he fast.
If it hadn't have been for Safety Cars, Kovalainen would have been standing next to Lewis on the podium in second spot, but as it was Nick Heidfeld stuck his BMW on second with a mature drive and Nico Rosberg raised his trophy to much deserved chants of, 'Nico! Nico!' from his Williams team.
And wasn't it great to see drivers actually celebrating on the podium with each other? Lewis and Nico were genuinely chuffed to be up there, and I for one look forward to more of that.
So only seven cars finished and a lot of surprises were thrown up for us to mull over - lots of which you'll be able to read on here over the coming week - so be sure to use that pesky comment box and tell us how your Grand Prix weekend was.
I'll leave you with the text that I received at 6:26am, from my mate Benny in Sydney. It said, 'What a way to start the season! We know how to put on a show down here'.
He wasn't wrong.
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21 Comments for "Australian Grand Prix results"
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The best moment of the weekend has to be the Lewis/Nico hug and jump before the podium. It's great to see the drivers a) getting on and b) celebrating together... I've not felt that good about F1 for a while! Long live the young guns!!
What a disastrous start to the season for Ferrari. As much as it was a brilliant start to the season for McLaren. Lets hope Kimi's Ferrari doesn't have more reliability problems. The Iceman will bounce back, as he always does.
What a way to start off a new season! More action than in a whole decade's worth of racing (or so it seemed!). Well done and I can't wait for the Canadian GP.
Lewis was stunning, didn't put a foot wrong. Saying that nor did Nico, or Nick. Funny how the rookies and less thought of drivers seem to be able to cope without driver aids, and the supposed superstars can't... one wonders if we are about to see a shift in the balance of the F1 ranks.
Awesome! Who needs sleep when you have this to keep you up? 10 seconds into the race and Fisichella's already taken off; four seconds later Massa's spinning like a figure-skater. 7 out of 22 finishing the race... I'm not saying I enjoy watching people crash, but it certainly is interesting.
The race was one of the most entertaining I've seen for years and although Kimi didn't finish, don't you think he did well to get from 15th to 3rd at one point in the race? The mark of a true champion? Maybe. Or maybe just help from the safety cars...
i think kimi raikkonen did a good job he made a fantastic start and got to 9th place from the start so i think that was great and he managed to overtake alonso at the begininng and coulthard and after 16 laps he managed to overtake rubens barrichello who used to drive without traction control and we saw him in second place in the middle of the race and if he wasnt too optimistic to overtake his fellow finn kovalainen i think he would have won the race so easily why ? cause hamilton had another stop and raikkonen had just one stop .
Last weekends GP is a prime example of why they should keep the race in Australia
Please, please, please can we have more GP's like this one.
Especially for Melbourne too. I really hope we can keep the GP (I live in Melbourne). Hopefully with more shows like this we can.
Hope you all liked it!
Oh Yes, I did enjoy that race!
So good to see Lewis jump/dance/run from his car, out to his team, up the stairs and out on the podium! What a treat!
The race was one of the most entertaining I've seen for years and although Kimi didn't finish, don't you think he did well to get from 15th to 3rd at one point in the race? The mark of a true champion? Maybe. Or maybe just help from the safety cars...
And wasn't it good to see Kovalainen block for Lewis when Kimi was all over the back of him? Finally, McCaren actually has a team now, not two independant parts!
Taking the driver aids out was a brilliant move for f1. Now the races are so unpredictable compared to last season. And it really rewards the driver with more skills... in most cases cough kimi cough. It also humiliates those that aren't really up to par. Then there is the unreliability problems with the cars. This season just started to look twice as exciting as the last one already.
Awesome! Who needs sleep when you have this to keep you up? 10 seconds into the race and Fisichella's already taken off, 4 seconds later Massa's spinning like a figure-skater. 7 out of 22 finishing the race... I'm not saying I enjoy watching people crash, but it certainly is interesting. Raikkonen getting stuck behind Barichello was a bit of a bummer but it certainly proves that reversing the grid after qualifiying wouldn't be much fun.
I honestly can't wait till the rest of the season, more of this sans traction-control, more of Lewis, and more fun fun fun.
Turned into an allnighter after all! But me and my Bro were there, bouncing up and down on the sofa like little children. Even my poor long suffering wife watched the start, enjoyed the carnage, and then went to bed!
Yes I was expecting the midfield explosion of carbon fibre, (geat start), but what was going on with the Fezzas? Bet Ross was laughing his, er socks off down in the Honda garage.
Man what a race I haven't seen that much passing or attempted passing in, god I don't know how long, I may not be a Hamilton fan but I hope the next 17 races were as exciting as this, a far cry from the parades of yore.
I think it's too early to say something about the F1 championship, team and drivers - it was a very unusual race. It's unusual for Ferrari to break 2 engines in one race, but Lewis was awesome, very fast and focused, perfect. But it's easy to drive perfectly when you're alone, let's see what's going to happen this coming weekend.
I wonder if the teams can produce replacement cars as quickly as the drivers will be wrecking them? If not, then I expect Hamilton will be winning this season's championship based purely on the fact that he'll be the only one left with a car!
Well I didn't get up to watch this, but hell was it an excellent race, the only down side was Alonso finishing as high up as he did, there were far more deserving drivers to finish in the points.
Lewis was stunning, didn't put a foot wrong, saying that nore did Nico, or Nick. Funny how the rookies and less thought of drivers seem to be able to cope without driver aids, and the supposed superstars can't. One wonders if we are about to see a shift in the balance of the F1 ranks?
This was one of the most exciting grand prix I have ever seen. I wanted to get up at 3:30 in the morning but wasn't allowed so I Sky-plused it and wactched it 9:00 in the morning as soon as I woke up. It was the first Aussie Grand Prix I had watched in full and it was amazing.
At first I thought that the lack of traction control didn't change the cars much other than a few small slides but the race itself proved me wrong. Kimi's spin was worse than when Clarkson overcooks it on the track.
Hamilton definatly deserved to win. I can't wait for the next one. Hopefully there will be a few more finishing.
Go on Lewis!
I must say that I've never really been able to sit down for a prolonged period of time to watch an F1 race, so it came as a surprise when I found myself glued to the television watching the replay this afternoon.
What made me enjoy the race as much as I did was the fantastic amount of crashes and the amount of time cars overtook each other.
The new regulations are definitely a big plus for the sport, showing everybody's true skills and providing much more action.
Great first race!
What a disastrous start to the season for Ferrari. As much as it was a brilliant start to the season for McLaren. Let's hope Kimi's Ferrari doesn't have more reliability problems. The Iceman will bounce back, as he always does.
My F1-weekend was rubbish to say the least. Got up early in the morning just to see Kimi struggling like never before, and finally his Ferrari had an engine failure. Nothing could possibly have gone worse, im from Finland you see.
Hopefully normal service will be resumed next weekend, with Raikkonen shuffing it up the throats of everybody else. Especially Hamilton. Just need to hope the Ferrari stays in one piece this time...