Ferarri's new driver Kimi Raikkonen put in a dominant performance to win the opening round of the 2007 Formula One series over the McLaren duo of two-time champion Fernando Alonso and debutante Lewis Hamilton. Raikkonen, who started from the pole position, had an incident-free race and at one point held a massive 15-second lead over the field. His Ferrari was clearly faster than many other cars in the race, allowing him to lap all but seven of his opponents by the end.
The race, run in perfect conditions, started impressively with a huge crush of vehicles successfully navigating the tight first and third turns of the course without any clashes.
There were a small number of vehicle failures throughout, and one spectacular collision when David Coulthard of the Red Bull team attempted an impossible passing maneuver around a tight, windy section of the temporary street circuit, cutting across the front of Williams-Toyota's Alexander Wurz. Coulthard's front left wheel assembly was smashed as his vehicle flicked up onto and then slid across the nose of Wurz's car and went flying through the air to land safely in the sand. Remarkably, Wurz was able to continue without any problems while Coulthard walked away from his ruined machine. Despite this, the pace car was not required throughout the 58 lap Australian Grand Prix, which ran very smoothly after requiring four stoppages last year.
[Source: The Age]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vinny @ Mar 18th 2007 6:10PM
Congrats to Kimi but rookie Lewis' performance is what amazed me! He is going to make this an interesting year. Media is already
referring to him as a possible "Tiger Woods of F1".
Anorexicpillow @ Mar 18th 2007 6:40PM
Great race! It is a real shame how poorly Button did, on the other hand great qualifying for Super Aguri!
RPM38 @ Mar 18th 2007 7:27PM
Kimi's race did not go without incident... he dosed off and locked up a wheel late in the race... I thought it was pretty funny of him to admit he was just thinking of something else at the time!
Very happy for Raikkonen and for Hamilton... and we still haven't seen how the Raikkonen/Massa bout will end up. He made a pretty good comeback (+ 10 positions).
mkashambuzi @ Mar 18th 2007 7:41PM
I thought that any news regarding race events was always pretext with Spoiler in its heading and no pictures and/or revealing notes about race winners and/or disappointments would be displayed?
Some people watch recorded races so, out of respect for them, we should not reveal race results so blatantly.
Michael @ Mar 18th 2007 8:22PM
Wurz did not continue with no problems...he retired after his clash with Coulthard. Just made it to the next corner I believe and then pulled off.
hank @ Mar 18th 2007 8:44PM
+1 about the spolier alert
mkashambuzi is right.
Autoblog has been good about spoiler alerts in the past, not sure what's up with them now.
Hey Autoblog, are you listening? thanks
Snix @ Mar 18th 2007 9:14PM
I expected Hamilton to make a good showing, but he was absolutely brilliant!
Ron Dennis did some very good shopping indeed when he snagged Hamilton and Alonso.
I just dont get the Honda team issues, and Toyota ought to realize that you just cant buy a winning team.
Massa made an outstanding effort, though.
It was always said that if Kimi had the right car, he would shine. If only he had the right car 2 years ago, who knows what would have happened. But we are here now and seeing the results.
Too bad for Coultard almost decapitating that other driver. That was close! Glad to see they both walked away!
pfb @ Mar 18th 2007 9:41PM
So how many world championships would Kimi have already if he had been driving for Ferrari all those years instead of M.S.??
Good for him finally being in a car that can dominate... It was painful to watch him struggle with teams that couldn't provide him a top-tier car.
nagmashot @ Mar 19th 2007 2:26AM
#8 what a bs comment... Kimi was not able to put the Mercedes on top... at Ferrari he only need to sit in the car and enjoy the hard development work of M.S. did the many years he drove for Ferrari, where M.S. was able to turn a loser team back into a F1 dominating team..
Alonso/Hamilton needed only one season preparation to put Mercedes on top... that only shows that Kimi is not able to develop together with his engineers a car on a level as M.S. or Alonso could...
Ford Mustang @ Mar 19th 2007 2:39AM
Good for Kimi. Hopefully he'll have better luck with reliability in the Ferrari than he did with the Mclaren.
Logik @ Mar 19th 2007 3:15AM
This season can only get better in the coming races. It will be interesting to have a four-way championship battle. Alonso, Hamilton v. Kimi, Masa.
Jaguar @ Mar 19th 2007 7:46AM
Hey jackasses, how hard is it to not put spoilers on the front page?
Ian @ Mar 19th 2007 9:15AM
We await news re the Ferrari undertray. Modifications may be on the way if Ron Dennis has his way!
amp @ Mar 19th 2007 9:32AM
Actually, #9, your comment kind of reeks of B.S. too. Look back to the 2005 season, Kimi and Alonso both won seven races that year. The only thing that kept Kimi from winning the driver's title that year was the McLaren's poor reliability (Kimi retired twice, Alonso only once). Also take a look at who set the most fast laps. Raikkonen set eight or nine, while Alonso only had two.
Kimi clearly knows how to set up a car. So make sure you check your facts before you start talking out of your arse.
Yago Bal @ Mar 19th 2007 11:07AM
Spoiler???
News happen in real time...
If you want to see later the race you had the trouble to record, you should also have the trouble to not visit autoblog until you see it.
It's not our problem, you know...
lintsniffer @ Mar 19th 2007 2:46PM
Why would you people, now wanting to know the results of an F1 race, come to a car site like Autoblog?