Lewis Hamilton won Australian Grand Prix, Nick Heidfeld second

McLaren British driver Lewis Hamilton won the season opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne on Sunday, 16th March 2008.

The drama simply couldn't catch up with Hamilton's McLaren at the front of the field as the Englishman drove a spectacular and flawless race from start to finish to clinch the first GP of the season and register his first win at Albert Park.

Only seven drivers effectively made it across the chequered flag - with Bourdais and Raikkkonen being classified despite their respective retirements in the dying stages of the race.
McLaren will be disappointed at not having a stronger result from Kovalainen who clearly lost out after the third safety car period threw his pit strategy haywire; and disturbed the one:two formation that the team held through several parts of the race.

BMW proved that they're clearly a team to contend with this season with Nick Heidfeld bringing home a worthy second place for the team after Kubica's misfortune following a great qualifying outing. They will undoubtedly be hunting for their maiden victory sooner than later.

Nico Rosberg registered his first ever podium place and seemed delighted with the Williams package, which also looked impressive all weekend.

Fernando Alonso finished 4th in his Renault, Kovalainen 5th in McLaren, Rubens Barrichello finished sixth with Honda, Kazuki Nakajima seventh in Williams and Sebastien Bourdais grabbed the final point with Toro Rosso.

Force India F1 has the disaster start of their Formula 1 debut season as both of their drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil not able to finish the race.

The 58-lap, action-packed race saw six different teams picking up points with McLaren and Williams being the only two constructors to have both their drivers finish in the points.
Ferrari had a race-to-forget and will want to prove a point next weekend as the season turns to Malaysian Grand Prix at the fabulous race-track in Sepang.

Top 3 Drivers at Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren

Nick Heidfeld - BMW

Nico Rosberg - Williams


Standing after 1st Race


Driver's Championship

Lewis Hamilton(McLaren) - 10 points

Nick Heidfeld (BMW) - 8 points

Nico Rosberg (Williams) - 6 points


Constructor's Championship

McLaren-Mercedese - 14 points

BMW - 8 points

Williams - 8 points

Lewis Hamilton takes Pole Position in Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne

Lewis Hamilton got his bid for the Formula One world championship off to the perfect start after taking pole position for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. This is Briton's seventh career pole.

The McLaren driver's time of one minute 26.714 seconds was good enough to edge out Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber by 0.155 secs. It was a good day for McLaren, with Heikki Kovalainen taking third, ahead of Massa, with 1m 27.079s.

With Kimi Raikkonen already sidelined after problems in Q2, team mate Felipe Massa had to uphold Ferrari honour alone in Q3, but after recording 1m 27.178s on his first run, he failed to improve on his second. Kubica, meanwhile, was on a blinder that resulted in 1m 26.869s even though he ran wide in Turn Nine. The Pole kept his foot in it and didn’t appear to lose an awful lot of time, and planted his BMW Sauber on the front row for the first time in his career.

Nick Heidfeld’s 1m 27.236s was good enough for fifth in the second BMW Sauber, then came Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on 1m 28.527s, Nico Rosberg’s Williams on 1m 28.687s, David Coulthard’s Red Bull on 1m 29.041s and Timo Glock’s Toyota on 1m 29.593s, while Sebastian Vettel ended an impressive 10th for Toro Rosso.

So wait and watch who will win the 2008 season opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, 16th March.

Summary of the first day of practice for the ING Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne

The first day of practice for the ING Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park saw Ferrari and McLaren evenly matched, but was generally confusing as all sorts of differing fuel loads were used as drivers set their fastest times.

Kimi Raikkonen looked impressive as the Ferrari driver topped the time sheets in Thursday morning's first practice for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Finn played down his favourite's tag on Wednesday but his time of one minute 26.461 seconds was nearly half a second quicker than the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and served early notice he will be the man to beat at Albert Park this weekend.

Summary of the first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix

Ferrari
Fastest lap of day, Raikkonen 1m 26.461s, morning

McLaren
Fastest lap of day, Hamilton 1m 26.559s, afternoon

Red Bull
Fastest lap of day, Webber, 1m 27.473s, afternoon

Toyota
Fastest lap of day, Trulli, 1m 28.292s, afternoon
Williams
Fastest lap of day, Rosberg, 1m 28.352s, afternoon

Renault
Fastest lap of day, Alonso, 1m 28.360s, morning

Force India
Fastest lap of day, Fisichella, 1m 28.469s, afternoon

BMW Sauber
Fastest lap of day, Kubica, 1m 28.579s, morning

Honda
Fastest lap of day, Button, 1m 28.632s, afternoon

Toro Rosso
Fastest lap of day, Vettel, 1m 28.957s, morning

Super Aguri
Fastest lap of day, Sato, 1m 30.663s, afternoon