Warning: Race results and spoilers in this post.
A fantastic start to the Formula 1 Grand Prix season for 2007. With yesterday’s excellent qualification,Kimi Raikkonen continued his excellent form onto the race day.
Qualifying in the pole position, Kimi had an excellent start maintaining his position at the front of the pack. Running light on fuel, he quickly got down to business and pulled clear ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld both of whom beat Fernando Alonso to the first corner, pushing him down to fourth place. After the initial shuffle at the head of the pack, it was mostly formation running up till the pit stop window.
Massa who started the race at the back of the grid as a result of an engine change penalty had a brilliant overtaking 2 cars in the first lap and then picking his way through the back of the field to come up to 16th position by lap 4. At this point, his progress was impeded first by David Coulthard and then by the Hondas of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. The Hondas were the big disappointment of the day, severely under performing, especially compared to their performance last year. Massa managed to pass Button (who had earlier been passed by Barrichello) on lap 17 and starts chasing Rubinho once again.
In the meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen continued to put in some extremely fast laps to prepare for his first pit stop which was expected around lap 18-20. Lap 18 was the fasted of the race so far by Kimi who immediately pits in the next lap from the pole position, relinquishing it, in a historic moment, to debutant Lewis Hamilton who briefly led the race till his own pit stop on lap 23, one lap after Alonso’s pit stop. With that, Kimi reclaimed the lead. He continues to put in the fastest lap times to further increase the gap between himself and Hamilton.
Felipe Massa finally pits for his only pit stop on lap 30 for a new set of harder tyres and fuel worth 12 seconds, enough to take him to the chequered flag on the single stop. With the pit stops completing, Massa breaks into the top 10 after starting from the back end.
Next Kimi Raikkonen moves into the pit late for his second and final pit stop on lap 42 and comes out just behind the McLarens and regains the lead within four laps when both the McLarens pit. The order changes for them though with Alonso coming out in front of Hamilton after a super quick pit stop and a particularly slow outlap by Hamilton. This sets the order for the top 4 in the order Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld.
With the second round of pit stops finishing up, Felipe Massa moves upto the sixth position and starts hunting Giancarlo Fisichella in his Renault for the fifth position. It was one of the best fights of the race with Massa constantly trying to overtake Fisichella but never being close enough.
In the end, Massa had to settle for the 6 place, a much better result than expected at the start of the race. And with that, the first race of the season was won by Kimi in his Ferrari debut at Melbourne Australia.
Complete Race Results:
| 1 |
Kimi Räikkönen |
| 2 |
Fernando Alonso |
| 3 |
Lewis Hamilton |
| 4 |
Nick Heidfeld |
| 5 |
Giancarlo Fisichella |
| 6 |
Felipe Massa |
| 7 |
Nico Rosberg |
| 8 |
Ralf Schumacher |
| 9 |
Jarno Trulli |
| 10 |
Heikki Kovalainen |
| 11 |
Rubens Barrichello |
| 12 |
Takuma Sato |
| 13 |
Mark Webber |
| 14 |
Vitantonio Liuzzi |
| 15 |
Jenson Button |
| 16 |
Anthony Davidson |
| 17 |
Adrian Sutil |
| Ret |
Alexander Wurz |
| Ret |
David Coulthard |
| Ret |
Robert Kubica |
| Ret |
Scott Speed |
| Ret |
Christijan Albers |
Race timings courtesy Formula 1.
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