Hamilton stays out of trouble to win Australian grand prix
Sunday, 16 Mar 2008 12:18
Hamilton got his season off to the best possible start
Lewis Hamilton managed to steer clear of a number of race incidents to win the opening race of the 2008 Formula One world Championship in Australia.
The McLaren driver finished ahead of BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld while Nico Rosberg finished third in the Williams.
Defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen was among 15 cars which failed to finish as many crashes and accidents prompted the safety car to be deployed on a number of occasions.
By starting from pole position Hamilton was able to avoid two incidents which occurred in a frantic first corner of the race.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa was forced to pit after he damaged his car trying to pass McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen. There was also a pile-up at the back of the pack which eliminated British pair Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson as well as three others.
Raikkonen benefited from the action, steering his Ferrari from 16th on the grid up to eighth place. When the safety car pitted the Finn found it hard to get past Rubens Barrichello in the Honda.
However, as many of the cars in front of him stopped for fuel Raikkonen was able to close the gap to Hamilton who was in the lead.
The Briton was finding it hard to build a significant advantage as the safety car kept bringing him back to the rest of the pack.
Midway through the race Raikkonen was in third place, behind the two McLaren's, but his day ended early when he attempted an audacious overtaking manoeuvre against Kovalainen which saw him hit the barrier.
Kovalainen could have finished second but for bad luck with another safety car, that bumped him down the field and he battled with Renault's Fernando Alonso for fourth place.
The Finn nearly got the better of the double world champion but a mistake on the pit straight handed the place to Alonso.
Despite his crash Raikkonen picked up one point for finishing eighth as Barrichello was disqualified after the race for jumping a red light in the pit lane.
But the day belonged to Hamilton who managed to avoid the many incidents to complete the fifth victory of his career and gave himself the best start to his 2008 title challenge.