Expectations were high heading into Melbourne, and despite a rained off qualifying session, Q2 and Q3 took place in the morning, only for the Red Bull's to be dominant, everyone feeling it ominously felt a bit like 2011. As the race came at 5:00pm local time, dry weather stayed and 22 cars (all but the stricken Sauber car belonging to Hulkenberg) took their places for the first time.
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| The Annual Melbourne Grid Picture |
As Vettel took off into the distance with a considerable gap between himself and the rest of the field, it seemed a done deal. Teammate Webber continued his poor home race form, this time due to technical difficulties, with his electronics failing and also had no KERS for the first 20 laps. As he slips from 2nd to 7th, the fast starting Ferrari's swoop by, as well as Hamilton and Rosberg.
Whilst Raikkonen overtook Hamilton to take 4th, the Ferrari's kept pace and actually closed in on Vettel. Changing from the super-softs to the medium compound tyres, the top three held order after the first of their three-stop strategy, whilst Raikkonen stayed out, underfolding his two-stop strategy.
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| Vettel Gets Away Well As Webber Falls Behind The Typically Fast Starting Ferrari's |
After the first stops, the top three came out behind Adrian Sutil who also on a two-stop race, brilliantly led the race on his Formula One return and even pulled away from Vettel in his Force India for a number of laps before pitting himself. Alonso was first to blink for the second stop and turned out to be a crucial move, as he jumped both his teammate Massa and Vettel to take the lead. As they came to overtake the two-stopping Rosberg, the Mercedes electrics failed and he pulled over.
As the strategies played out, Raikkonen took the lead as Vettel and the two Ferrari's pitted for the final time, and he overtook Sutil again on lap 43, where he could control his pace to manage his tyres and gap to the chasing Alonso. Vettel and Alonso for the first two stints had similar pace, but in the final stint with the fuel burning off, Alonso pulled far ahead as he closed down Raikkonen. Nevertheless it wasn't enough as Kimi took the win 12 seconds ahead, with Vettel surprisingly a further 10 seconds away, and Massa coming home fourth after a much improved performance.
Meanwhile, Hamilton had to make a third stop in the end after hard tyre wear, and Webber after his glum start thanks to faulty electrics and loss of KERS for the first 20 laps, recovered well to sixth despite being stuck in the midfield behind the Force India's and Button's McLaren, who finished 7th, 8th and 9th respectively.
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| The First Podium Line Up Of The Year |
Whilst Kimi won the race from 7th on the grid, teammate Grosjean struggled dropping from 8th to 10th to pick up the last point, over 80 seconds behind, blaming his lack of time with updates which Kimi was more familiar with over the weekend.
Perez missed out on the final point on his McLaren debut with his under performing new team, by just 0.6seconds, with Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso only a further 0.5 seconds behind. His teammate Ricciardo in his home race retired after 39 laps with a broken exhaust.
Two new rookies Gutierrez and Bottas finished 13th and 14th respectively, with Bottas' teammate Maldonado spinning out on lap 24 after dipping a tyre on the grass going into turn 1. Jules Bianchi was the best of the Marussia's and Caterham's, with Chilton scrapping with van der Garde throughout the race, bringing up the back of the field 2 laps down.
Overall a super race, with great developments, strategies and a mixed result.
Nick, F1 Hub
F1 Hub Overtake of the Race
Vettel on Sutil - Lap 23
After being stuck behind the Force India for a large number of laps, Vettel and Sutil pitted for their second and first stops respectively at the end of lap 21, as they began lap 23 going in the second DRS zone down to turn 3, Vettel cleverly used all his KERS and dived down the inside bravely coming from quite a long way back.
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| Vettel's Lunge Under Braking Into Turn 3 Using 100% Of KERS Instead Of The Regular 20% |
F1 Hub Driver of the Race
A few contenders, with Sutil putting in a brilliant performance on his return after a year out, and Bianchi doing a super job at the back of the field, being the only one of the Marussia's and Caterham's not the be two laps behind.
Drive of the day though goes to Raikkonen, which may be an obvious choice because of the result, but even his fellow competitors and team principles hailed his flawless performance combined with strategy. A driver has to the make the most of the car they are given, and Kimi took advantage of his car's ability to be easy on their tyres in Albert Park, keeping pace with the frontrunners initially, before managing pace and tyres as the respective strategies played out.
It will be interesting to see in Malaysia if their tyres perform as well in the much hotter, humid conditions. If so, Raikkonen is a serious title contender.
Full Race Result
1) Kimi Raikkonen [Lotus] 1:30:03:225
2) Fernando Alonso [Ferrari] +12.4 seconds
3) Sebastian Vettel [Red Bull] +22.3 seconds
4) Felipe Massa [Ferrari] +33.5 seconds
5) Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] +45.5 seconds
6) Mark Webber [Red Bull] +46.8 seconds
7) Adrian Sutil [Force India-Mercedes] +65.0 seconds
8) Paul di Resta [Force India-Mercedes] +68.4 seconds
9) Jenson Button [McLaren-Mercedes] +81.6 seconds
10) Romain Grosjean [Lotus-Renault] +82.7 seconds
11) Sergio Perez [McLaren-Mercedes] +83.3 seconds
12) Jean-Eric Vergne [Toro Rosso-Ferrari] 83.8 seconds
13) Esteban Gutierrez [Sauber Ferrari] +1 Lap
14) Valtteri Bottas [Williams-Renault] +1 Lap
15) Jules Bianchi [Marussia-Cosworth] +1 Lap
16) Charles Pic [Caterham-Renault] +2 Laps
17) Max Chilton [Marussia-Cosworth] +2 Laps
18) Giedo van der Garde [Caterham-Renault] +2 Laps
Did Not Finish
Nico Hulkenberg [Sauber-Ferrari] Lap 0 - Did Not Start Fuel System Issue
Pastor Maldonado [Williams-Renault] Lap 24 - Spun Off Into Gravel
Nico Rosberg [Mercedes] Lap 26 - Electrical Issue
Daniel Ricciardo [Toro Rosso-Ferrari] Lap 39 - Exhaust Issue
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