2008 Australian Grand Prix Race Report

By Effwun - FOAS #65

Lewis Hamilton cruised to a comfortable win in Australia ahead of Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg - it is the first win for Lewis down under, and McLaren's first since 2003. The win naturally puts Lewis in the lead of the championship, which is a familiar feeling for the young Brit, having led the championship for the vast majority of the year in 2007. McLaren head the constructor's championship after Heikki Kovalainen in the other McLaren came home fifth.

At the beginning of the weekend, Kimi Raikkonen started where he left off in 2007: fastest in Prac 1, with a time of 1:27.461, set in the dying seconds of the session. Last year's rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton was second fastest, 0.487 s slower than the world champion, with the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa a further 0.010 s back in third, and Heikki Kovalainen was fourth in the other McLaren with a time of 1:27.114. So, the Ferraris and the McLarens were top of the timesheet. No surprises there then.

Behind the leading quartet, local hero Mark Webber posted the 5th fastest time in the all-new Red Bull, whilst teammate David Coulthard could manage no better than 13th, after having suffered a mechanical problem (transmission or engine) that necessitated a trip to the pits and a healthy dose of fire extinguishant. Fernando Alonso was 6th fastest in the new Renault, with teammate Nelson Piquet Jr some 2 seconds slower. Piquet was somewhat hampered by a spin and stall at turn 14, which precipitated a brief red flag to allow his stricken car to be cleared.

7th and 8th places were occupied by Robert Kubica and Timo Glock respectively, but perhaps the best performer of the session was Sebastian Vettel, who posted the 9th fastest time (1:27.959), despite an early problem with the fuel filler flap being stuck open. The young German was some 4 tenths faster than Rookie Sebastien Bourdais, who maximised his running presumably to further familiarise himself with both the car and the circuit. He would end up 14th fastest.

After P1, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the loss of traction control hadn't hurt the drivers very much, after all there were only a few cases of drivers having small offs and getting the rear of the car sliding through the corners. However, in P2 there were numerous incidents and offs, and a couple of spins as well. The track temperature had risen since the morning's session, peaking at 48 degrees celcius (in the morning session the track temperature started at 34 and peaked at 39 degrees celcius). This meant that the track had a lot less grip. Also, the drivers were probably attacking the circuit a lot more than they were in the morning session.

Lewis Hamilton finished the session as the fastest man, with a time of 1:26.599 set in the closing stages of the session whilst on the softer option tyre. This time was well clear of the second place man - local hero Mark Webber - who set a time of 1:27.473 relatively early in the session, and who remained top of the timesheet for most of the session. Behind the top two, the order was Massa (who, during the session, had an incident at the quick right-hand turn 12 and half-spun his Ferrari), followed by the other McLaren of Kovalainen (whose only incident appeared to be running a little wide under braking to turn 3), followed by David Coulthard. Coulthard complained to his engineers that he was not getting the maximum on his first lap on new tyres and that he had done "bugger all" proper running, presumably due to traffic. After having suffered a mechanical problem in P1, he stopped out on track at the end of P2, and had to get a ride back to the pits in the Medical Car.

Kimi Raikkonen was 6th fastest with a time of 1:28.208 - the Finn had a relatively uneventful session - followed by Jarno Trulli, whose session came to a premature end when he got his left-side tyres on the grass under braking for turn 3, and spun his car into the gravel trap. Nico Rosberg was 8th fastest, and it looked as though the German was struggling for grip, running wide a few times and having to use a lot of opposite lock on occasions. In discussion with his engineer, he complained of understeer in right-hand corners, graining of the tyres, and rear brake locking. His engineer suggested that some of his problems might be due to the balance of the car, but also due to a problem with the differential, which may have been what sidelined Rosberg in the morning session.

The two BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld took top billing in Saturday practice for the 2008 Australian Grand Prix, with times of 1:25.613 and 1:25.950 respectively. The BMWs were likely on low fuel runs, in preparation for qualifying later today. In third place was Fernando Alonso, who also appeared to be on low fuel. His time of 1:26.082 was significantly faster than his best Friday time of 1:28.360. It's possible that the Renault team were being conservative in the Friday sessions, but that's a tactic that yields few benefits.

The order of the rest of the top ten was Rosberg, Coulthard, Webber, Button, Vettel, Fisichella, Trulli. Fisichella was a somewhat unexpected 9th place, and surely must have been on low fuel also. Indeed the fact that these runners were concentrating on qualifying is surely borne out by the fact that none of the major players were in the top ten - Massa was 11th, Hamilton 12th, Raikkonen 14th, and Kovalainen 20th. These guys were likely concentrating on set-up and strategy - Raikkonen complained of poor balance on Friday.

So to qualifying. Q1 saw the elimination of what would be considered the usual suspects, however there was one surprise early on - the rookie Renault driver Nelson Piquet could manage no better than 21st place on the grid with a woeful time of 1:28.330, some one-and-a-half seconds slower than his teammate Fernando Alonso. The drivers eliminated in Q1 were Fisichella, Bourdais (whose admirable performances of the weekend so far didn't amount to much, especially considering his teammate's performance - more on that later), Sutil, Sato, Piquet, and Anthony Davidson. But the big surprise of Q1 was Kimi Raikkonen. Whilst downshifting on the approach to turn 15, after having set a time that would see him through to Q2, Raikkonen's Ferrari cut out. The problem was apparently fuel pressure - a problem that had manifested itself earlier in the weekend, and which the Ferrari team thought they had fixed. Sadly not. Raikkonen coasted up the pit lane, but could not make it past the pit entry line. The Ferrari mechanics trotted to his aid, but because he had effectively stopped out on track, he would not be allowed to take any further part in qualifying. It looked as though he would be mired down in 16th place.

Further surprises came after Q2 actually started. Mark Webber, who had wowed his home crowd all weekend, suffered a right-front brake failure, which pitched him off the circuit at turn 7, ending his day. This incident precipitated a red flag, with just under 9 minutes of the 15 minute Q2 session remaining.

The rest of Q2 was a hard fought battle, and at one point it looked as though one of the Honda cars might actually make it into Q3. Alas, it was not to be, but there were more surprises - Fernando Alonso could not make it through to Q3. His best time was only good enough for 12th place. Alonso tried to temper this by claiming that the Renault does not have good 1-lap pace, but he will have a lot of work to do to in the race. Perhaps the biggest (and most welcome) surprise was that Sebastian Vettel cruised through into Q3. In fact he set the 6th fastest time in Q2. So, the eliminees from Q2 were Barrichello, Alonso, Button, Nakajima, Webber, and Raikkonen.

It all came down to Q3 then. The new format of qualifying has shortened Q3 to just ten minutes (and lengthened Q1 to 20 minutes), and has eliminated the fuel credit system, ie the "fuel burn phase". The cars would qualify on their race fuel, and whatever fuel they ended qualifying with, that would be what they would start the race with. Sebastian Vettel, after shining so brightly in Q2, opted to step out of his car - it would transpire that he had a technical problem, although Toro Rosso wouldn't confirm what the problem was. It always looked as though it would come down to a fight between McLaren and Ferrari. Surprisingly, it did not. The pace was set initially by Kovalainen, then Hamilton, then by Robert Kubica. However, the young pole ran very wide at the exit of turn 12 and although he kept his foot in it, he surely lost at least a tenth of a second. Thus, on Hamilton's final flying lap, he was able to steal pole position by a tenth and a half. Felipe Massa was left to fly the flag for Ferrari, but came up short - he had to abandon his last flying run due to traffic, and later complained that he just could not get the heat into his tyres.

So, it looked like the grid was set. However, after qualifying Timo Glock received two separate 5 grid slot penalties - one for a gearbox change, and one for baulking Mark Webber on an early run. This would drop the German from 9th to 19th on the grid.

On to the race then. It was a hot day in Melbourne - the air temperature was 37 degrees celcius and the track temperature started out at 52 degrees celcius (although it would cool off significantly as the afternoon wore on). The action was hot as well, and as predicted, there were several incidents. The drama started early - indeed even before the formation lap Rosberg had brake difficulties which were the result of having to change brake pads after qualifying due to a vibration - the change apparently upset his brake balance and "surprised" the young German. Further down the grid, Adrian Sutil elected to start from the pit lane. As predicted, there was a first corner snarl up. Most of the drivers at the front of the grid got a good start and there was little drama on the run down to turn 1. However at the exit of turn 1, Felipe Massa got it all wrong - he stood on the throttle too soon or too hard and spun his Ferrari into the outside wall, damaging the nose cone of the car. Further back, and possibly as a consequence of trying to avoid the spinning Ferrari, several cars got together, including Fisichella, Vettel, Davidson, Button, and Webber. All five retired from the race. As a consequence the safety car was deployed to clear up the mess. During the safety car period, Felipe Massa pitted twice - once to repair his accident damage and then, after the pits were opened, once for fuel. This would drop him to 17th place.

The safety car period did not last long, and the race resumed on lap 3. Kimi Raikkonen took advantage of the situation and had climbed to 8th place, having started 15th on the grid. However, the Finn (who started on a heavy fuel load) got stuck behind Rubens Barrichello, who was now the lone Honda in the race after Button's early retirement. At the front, Lewis Hamilton began to stroll into the lead, escaping from Robert Kubica at the rate of about half a second per lap. Indeed the BMWs, although fast initially, seemed to be dropping back as their tyres began to grain. Soon, Hamilton was lapping a second per lap faster than Kubica.

The first scheduled pit stops came on lap 17 - Kubica pitted from second place and took on fuel and a fresh set of prime (medium) tyres. His 8.6 second stop indicated that he was likely on a 2 stop strategy, and he rejoined the race just behind the Barrichello/Raikkonen battle. On lap 19, race leader Hamilton pitted - he took on more medium tyres also. It was a slightly longer stop for Hamilton, but rejoined in 4th place behind Heidfeld. Kovalainen was now in the race lead.

On lap 19 Raikkonen finally found a way past Barrichello - Rubens appeared to make a small mistake into turn 3, and Raikkonen pounced. He then roared off into the distance, finally free of his mobile road block. On lap 22, Heidfeld and Rosberg pitted. The two came extremely close to each other in the pit lane, but avoided contact. They rejoined the race behind David Coulthard and ahead of Fernando Alonso. Alonso managed to muscle his way past Rosberg though, who was still on cold tyres. A lap later, both Coulthard and race leader Kovalainen pitted. Kovalainen rejoined in second place, just ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who had yet to stop.

On lap 26, Felipe Massa made a lunge down the inside of David Coulthard at turn 1. The two collided heavily and whilst the damage on Massa's car was superficial, Coulthard's car was wrecked. David Coulthard clearly thought that Massa was in the wrong, going so far as to say "I'm gonna kick three colours of shit out of the little bastard". The awkward position of Coulthard's car, coupled with the large amount of debris, precipitated the second safety car period of the day. Once the pits opened, several cars made pit stops, including Alonso and Kubica.

On lap 30, the safety car came back in. Hamilton, who had resumed the lead, again took control and marched away from teammate Kovalainen who had Raikkonen climbing all over him. Kovalainen defended into turn 1, but Raikkonen got better drive off of turn 2. Coming down to turn 3 Kovalainen defended the inside line and Raikkonen incredibly made an error and overshot the corner. He gingerly had to negotiate the gravel trap, and after rejoining the circuit, he was in 12th and last place. Raikkonen cruised around the rest of the lap to make his first pit stop. Meanwhile his Ferrari teammate Massa coasted to a halt at the outside of turn 14. It appeared as though it was all coming unstuck for Ferrari. Further up the road, the race of attrition continued. Sato retired his Super Aguri at the end of the pit lane, followed shortly thereafter by Piquet, who abandoned his Renault at the inside of turn 9.

It was relatively plain sailing at the front of the pack - Hamilton continued in the lead, ahead of Kovalainen and Heidfled. The biggest battle on track was for 6th place, which was being fought by Bourdais, Kubica, and Alonso. Bourdais was doing an admirable job in his first Grand Prix, although of course he is not really a rookie, having been three times a Champ Car Word Series champion.

At the back of the field, Kimi Raikkonen was on a charge. By lap 43 he had closed down a roughly 12 second gap to tenth placed Timo Glock but under braking for turn 3, he got his left-side wheels on the grass and spun. He avoided the gravel trap and resumed the race, but it had all gone terribly wrong yet again for the Finn. A worse fate befell Glock however - on lap 45 he ran very wide out of turn 12 and got launched over the grass. The impact upon returning to terra firma broke two wheels off his Toyota, and he screeched and slid to a halt next to the outside wall. The safety car was deployed yet again.

The safety car period benefitted Lewis Hamilton, who pitted from the lead on lap 43, and Nick Heidfeld, who pitted shortly before Glock's incident. Kovalainen, however, lost out, and had to make his pit stop from the lead once the pits opened. Fernando Alonso also had to make a stop, but had to severely conserve fuel before the pits opened otherwise he was in danger of running out. Rubens Barrichello, however, had no choice as he would have run out of fuel. It turned out to be a nightmare stop for Honda - the lollipop was raised before the fuel rig was clear of the car and as Barrichello sped away, he dragged the refuelling rig and associated pit crew with him. There were thankfully no major injuries, but Barrichello would be forced to take a 10 second stop-go penalty for pitting whilst the pits were closed. Worse may yet befall the Brazillian - he was shown exiting the pits when the red light was on - an offence that usually yields disqualification. Update: Barrichello was indeed disqualified.

The safety car was due in on lap 48, but just as it peeled off, Kazuki Nakajima ran into the back of Robert Kubica. Both had to pit, but Kubica's race was over. So, after the race resumed the order was Hamilton, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Bourdais, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Alonso, Barrichello (after his penalty), Nakajima. Kovalainen muscled past Raikkonen at turn 13, but ran wide, allowing Alonso through - he began to hunt down Bourdais. The Frenchman held off the double world champion exceptionally well, and even started to pull away once Kovalainen started challenging Alonso again. Further calamity befell Raikkonen though - his Ferrari started sounding very rough, and he was turning laps that were six seconds off the pace. As Martin Brundle put it, it was a limping prancing horse. Eventually, on lap 55, the car gave up and Raikkonen coasted to a halt in the pit lane, just as he had done in qualifying. Both Ferraris were out of the race.

Cruelly, just a lap later Bourdais retired with smoke wafting from the rear of his Toro Rosso as he exited turn 12. It was a superb performance from the Frenchman, but it was all for nought. With his retirement, all six Ferrari engined cars were out of the race. His retirement also freed up the battle between Alonso and Kovalainen. On the penultimate lap, Alonso made a small mistake at turn 13, which allowed Kovalainen to squeeze by into turn 14, much to the delight of Ron Dennis. However, just seconds later, Alonso re-passed the Finn - Kovalainen had reached for a tear-off strip and had accidently hit the pit-limiter in the middle of the front straight! You can bet that Ron wasn't best pleased about that.

But up front, it was all smooth sailing for Hamilton - he cruised home some five and a half seconds ahead of Heidfeld, and eight seconds ahead of Rosberg. There were jubilant scenes in the Williams pits, and shouts of "Nico! Nico!" as he stood on the podium. Lewis Hamilton even showed his approval by giving Nico a giant bouncing hug! The biggest smile was reserved for Ron Dennis though, and Lewis playfully tried to shower his boss with water before the podium ceremony.

So, it was an action packed race, and a race of attrition - only 7 cars were running at the end and only McLaren and Williams brought both cars home. Such was the attrition in fact that Raikkonen ended up classsified in 8th place after the disqualification of Rubens Barrichello. It was a perfect start for Hamilton and a near-perfect start for McLaren, but it was an unmitigated disaster for Ferrari. Even they must feel that scoring 1 point was, under the circumstances, lucky. They never quite got into their stride, and mechanical problems plagued Kimi Raikkonen from day one. And with the Malaysian Grand Prix just seven days away, Ferrari are in for an uphill struggle if they are to prevent a repeat of today's performance.

- Effwun

Final Classification

Fastest lap: Heikki Kovalainen 1:27.418 (Lap 43)

The alternative Podium Ceremony

1st - The John Watson Award for most places gained in the race: Sebastien Bourdais (17th -7th, 10 places)
2nd - The Olivier Grouillard Award for best roadblock: Rubens Barrichello (for holding up Raikkonen)
3rd - The Philippe Alliot Award for most pointless crash: Felipe Massa (spin at first corner and clash with Coulthard)
Constructors - The David Coulthard Award for outstanding achievement in the field of complaining: David Coulthard ("He'd better apologise, or I'm gonna kick three colours of shit out of the little bastard", in reference to Felipe Massa).

Brazilian Grand Prix Race Report

Chinese Grand Prix Race Report

Japanese Grand Prix Race Report

Singapore Grand Prix Race Report

Italian Grand Prix Race Report

Australia - Mar 28

Malaysia - Apr 04

China - Apr 18

Bahrain - Apr 25

Spain - May 09

Monaco - May 23

Turkey - Jun 06

Great Britain - Jun 20

Germany - Jul 11

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