Australian Grand Prix 2008: Luke's Race Round Up

By Luke Marc Carlile-Stanton
March 16 2008

Well, i suppose as we leave Melbourne we can take some heart away from the race. The TF108 seems to have some good pace. Jarno Trulli ran very strongly in the first stint of the race in the top six but was stopped due a battery problem in his car. New signing Timo Glock did not have the easiest time of it after starting in 19th place on the grid following a 10 pace grid drop.

He had an eventful afternoon ending in an airborne crash 14 laps from the end.

Thankfully Timo emerged completely fine from his turn 12 aerobatics, just a bit winded. It was a wild way to return to Formula 1!

At the front, 2007 rookie of the year Lewis Hamilton controlled the retirement and action packed race from start to finish winning the opening race of the season for the Mclaren-Mercedes team. It was a welcome victory for himself, the team in general and most notably following a turbulent '07 with spy scandals and driver fall out added with some personal discomfort and speculation of his future as the Team principal. Some might say, they were deserved winners.

The final podium spots were taken by two impressive drives from German duo Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber and Nico Rosberg in the Toyota powered Williams. Former Karting team mates Hamilton and Rosberg could hide their delight at being on the podium for the first time together in eight years....when they were in Karting! A good result for the Williams team, they are truly bouncing back and a force to be reckoned with.

Former World Champion Fernando Alonso had a good afternoon's work in the Renault and got one over his 2007 employers Mclaren after a good dice with Heikki Kovalainen towards the end of the Grand Prix. Kovalainen took Alonso coming into the last section of corners with 2 laps to go only to accidentally hit the pit land speed limiter button up the main straight whilst clearing a tear off away! Ron Dennis had initially celebrated Heikki's move on Fernando but Fernando was the one who could celebrate by beating Kovalainen to the line for fourth place.

Four times Champ Car World Series Champion Sebastian Bourdais had a great race, battling with Kubica, Alonso and Kovalinen in the race and keeping them honest. He was leading the Alonso-Kovalainen battle in fourth place but suffered heartbreak with 2 laps to go when his engine let go. However due to the lack of finishers in the race the Frenchman was still classified in 7th place and collected two brilliant World Championship points for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team.

Bourdais finished just behind Williams' Japanese rookie Kazuki Nakajima and ahead of reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari who had a horrible afternoon and only picked up the final World Championship point after former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello was disqualified from the event after leaving the pits when the red light was on at the end of the pit lane. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Honda team after Barrichello had driven so well and the horrific season they had in 2007.

Joining Jarno and Timo in the retirement classification were (and get ready...); The Force India duo of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, Red Bull's British veteran David Coulthard was taken out by Ferrari driver Felipe Massa who completed a horrible afternoon for the Scuderia and later retired himself following the accident. Coulthards team mate Mark Webber also retired from this his home race. Super Aguri were lucky to even make it to Melbourne and have a lack of spare parts for the three flyaway events. There predicament was not eased following a double retirement for their drivers Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson. Robert Kubica started from the front row but retired from the event late in the race after falling back through the field. Jenson Button in the second Honda, Sebastian Vettel in the second Scuderia Toro Rosso and rookie Nelson Piquet Jnr (i mean Nelson Piquet) in the second Renault rounded out the non finishers.

Malaysia follows up next weekend and with the TF108 a definite improvement over it's much unloved elder brother the TF107 meaning the Toyota drivers, team and fans can look forward to F1 '08 Round Two and the rest of the season.

Australian Grand Prix results:

1) Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes , 1h34:50.616
2) Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber , + 5.478
3) Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota , + 8.163
4) Fernando Alonso, Renault , + 17.181
5) Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes , + 18.014
6) Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota , + 1 lap
7) Sebastian Bourdais, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari , + 2 laps
8) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari , + 3 laps

DQ Rubens Barrichello, Honda , + 52.453

Not classified:

Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber
Timo Glock, Toyota
Takuma Sato, Super Aguri-Honda
Nelson Piquet, Renault
Felipe Massa, Ferrari
David Coulthard, Red Bull-Renault
Jarno Trulli, Toyota
Adrian Sutil, Force India-Ferrari
Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault
Jenson Button, Honda
Anthony Davidson, Super Aguri-Honda
Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari
Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India-Ferrari