Kimi Gets Down Under GP

You got to love Kimi,  just give him a car that works, he'll take care of the champagne at the end.    Fantastic to see Lotus on top in the first race,  they are the underdog everyone likes to cheer for and for them to do it on a risky two stop strategy and from P7 on the grid makes it that much sweeter.

Great result for Ferrari too with a second and a fourth,  what a difference from last year. Alonso right on the money from P4,  passing his teammate and Vettel with an early stop gamble.  Massa a solid fourth place.

Red Bulls were just average but remember Melbourne is an odd track.  Still, starting from the front row and finishing third and sixth does not give you wings.


Winners:

• Lotus-Renault/Raikkonen:What can you say when Kimi said it was easy!
• Adrian Sutil: Seriously, the guy just shut down all the haters.
• Alonso/Ferrari: Great heads up driving in his duel with Hamilton.  Ferrari gets a car        right, finally.
• Hamilton: If he had stuck with Mclaren he would have been worse off! Heads up driving all race
• Massa:  Still the emotional guy Smedley has to manage but solid now.

Losers

• Webber:   Another crap start from the front row,  really?   Later team blamed the car but his race was crap from the moment he let the clutch out.
• Mclaren:   Now they know how Ferrari felt last year.  They blew qualifying for Perez insisting he go out on slicks when it was obviously wet then thanked Button for telling them to put the damn intermediates on.  Does not compute!
• Grosjean: He drove like he was concerned about not hitting anyone
• Mercedes:  Not good enough,
• Williams: Wow
• Sauber:  Wow

Executive Summary after the break




Welcome back F1 fans!

Results via Autosport.com

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Australian Grand Prix
Albert Park, Australia;
58 laps; 307.574km;
Weather: Cloudy.

Classified:

Pos  Driver               Team                      Time/Gap
 1.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1h30m03.225s
 2.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                  + 12.451s
 3.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault         + 22.346s
 4.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                  + 33.577s
 5.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes                 + 45.561s
 6.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault         + 46.800s
 7.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes   + 1m05.068s
 8.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes   + 1m08.449s
 9.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes       + 1m21.630s
10.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault          + 1m22.759s
11.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes       + 1m23.367s
12.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     + 1m23.857s
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

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1m29.274s

Not classified/retirements:

Driver            Team                On lap
Daniel Ricciardo  Toro Rosso-Ferrari  40
Nico Rosberg      Mercedes            26
Pastor Maldonado  Williams-Renault    25
Nico Hulkenberg   Sauber-Ferrari      1

World Championship standings, round 1:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Raikkonen      25        1.  Ferrari                    30
 2.  Alonso         18        2.  Lotus-Renault              26
 3.  Vettel         15        3.  Red Bull-Renault           23
 4.  Massa          12        4.  Mercedes                   10
 5.  Hamilton       10        5.  Force India-Mercedes       10
 6.  Webber          8        6.  McLaren-Mercedes            2
 7.  Sutil           6       
 8.  Di Resta        4       
 9.  Button          2       
10.  Grosjean        1