Only 7 cars saw the chequered flag in the sweltering heat of Melbourne. Nick Heidfeld collected second place and Williams’ Nico Rosberg got an impressive third place. The race was action packed right from the start, as Ferrari’s Felipe Massa lost control at the first corner and gently nudged the barrier.
Something that was of concern was the ease at which the cars fell apart. David Coulthard was tagged by Felipe Massa at the tricky turn 3 and his bodywork fell to pieces as the Red Bull skidded along the track. David ended up in the air at Melbourne last year, when he collided with Alex Wurz. Coulthard took the blame for that, and expects Massa to do the same this year, offering to “kick three colours of sh*t out of the little bastard” if he didn’t. With around ten laps to go, Timo Glock went wide and hit a bump in the ground, flinging the Toyota into the air, and once again the bodywork was strewn across the track.
Sebastian Bourdais failed to finish, and retired with an engine problem with just two laps to go. As he had reached the final 5 laps, he is technically classified as a finisher, and managed to collect one championship point. Rubens Barrichello may well face the wrath of the stewards after leaving the pit lane under a red light, which would promote Nakajima to 6th, Bourdais to 7th, and Raikkonen, who also failed to finish, into 8th.
A disappointing opening race for Force India resulted in both their drivers retiring from the race within a few laps. Fisichella was flipped onto two wheels in a first corner incident with Anthony Davidson.
The safety car was released three times throughout the race, but amid all the chaos and retirements, Lewis Hamilton kept his head to take an early lead in the Driver’s Championship. Deserved? Leave a comment on this page and let Toro Bloggo know what you think.
1. L HAMILTON 1h 34m 50.616s
2. N Heidfeld +5.4
3. N Rosberg +8.1
4. F Alonso +17.1
5. H Kovalainen +18.0
6. R Barrichello +52.4
7. K Nakajima +1 Lap
Retirements
S Bourdais
K Raikkonen
R Kubica
T Glock
T Sato
N Piquet
F Massa
D Coulthard
J Trulli
A Sutil
M Webber
J Button
A Davidson
S Vettel
G Fisichella
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: australia, f1, gp, hamilton, heidfeld, lewis, mclaren, melbourne, nick, nico, rosberg
