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******SPOILERS******
Hamilton victorious in action-packed Albert Park race
Lewis Hamilton’s win for McLaren at the Australian Grand Prix almost went unnoticed in Albert Park this afternoon - and that tells you just what sort of race it was. The 23 year-old Briton dominated an event characterised by safety car interventions following a series of dramatic incidents that all happened behind him.
Hamilton would build a lead, lose it behind the safety car, build it again, lose it again. You get the picture. But if he was impressive here a year ago, he was even better on Sunday, never losing his composure as he took the lead of the world championship with almost insouciant ease.
If it was a great day for McLaren, it was a disaster for Ferrari. Felipe Massa spun on the first lap and was then involved in an incident with Red Bull’s David Coulthard before retiring, and Kimi Raikkonen, having benefited from the second safety car intervention, slid off the road trying to pass McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen and undid all that work. Then his Ferrari let him down when he was running seventh with three laps to go.
Indeed, McLaren should have had a one-two, but a third safety car intervention following a heavy accident for Toyota’s Timo Glock badly hurt Kovalainen’s chances as he had to pit when everyone had closed up. He dropped way back, was passed by Raikkonen, repassed him, then found himself overtaken by Renault’s Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard overtook both of his rivals in a wonderful move.
After fighting back, Kovalainen repassed the Renault with two laps to go, only to have his car falter momentarily as they crossed the line for the 57th time. As he wiped oil off his visor he accidentally triggered the pit-lane speed limiter and a relieved Alonso pounced to head his former team mate home in fourth place.
Ahead of them, Nick Heidfeld brought his BMW Sauber home an excellent second, chased by Nico Rosberg, whose Toyota-engined Williams was the fastest car on the track in the closing stages. It was the young German’s first podium.
The race began with drama as an incident in the first corner involved Honda’s Jenson Button, Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson and Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, and led directly or indirectly to their retirements.
Jarno Trulli looked set for good points until his Toyota let him down, and Nelson Piquet’s debut for Renault was little short of disastrous as he trailed at the back and failed to make it home.
Sebastien Bourdais and his Toro Rosso crew made a great call on strategy and were running fourth, ahead of Alonso and Kovalainen with three laps to go, but were stymied by engine failure. Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Super Aguri’s Takuma Sato similarly failed to make the finish.
“The team did a fantastic job as always, and the car was phenomenal, a complete dream to drive compared to last year,” a delighted Hamilton said. “They pulled me in early on both stops and that kept us out of trouble. Physically the race was a breeze, and great preparation for Malaysia, so bring it on, I’m really looking forward to it.”
Australian Grand Prix images - Sunday in Melbourne| MORE HERE!
Ferrari rue dismal Melbourne weekend
Ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari had looked strong enough to lead many to suspect they would dominate the Melbourne race in much the same way as they did last season. The Italian team, however, leave Albert Park on Sunday with just one solitary point, after both Felipe Massa and world champion Kimi Raikkonen exited the Australian race prematurely with engine trouble.
“There's not much to say about a disastrous start to the season,” said sporting director Luca Baldisserri. “We did not work well on any level and this is the consequence of that. We know how important reliability is and we were severely lacking on this front. It is absolutely ages since we have seen two engine failures in a race. We have to look at every detail of this weekend to understand what went wrong and how we can improve.”
The squad’s struggles started during Saturday's qualifying when Raikkonen, who clinched a convincing pole in 2007, was hamstrung by an electronic fuel pump problem on his F2008. Massa, meanwhile, only managed to clinch fourth on the grid after facing stiff competition from the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen and the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica.
Although Massa and Raikkonen both had enough pace to fight their way up the field during the race, the duo’s fraught efforts - which included driver errors and off-track moments for both - eventually came to nought with both of their F2008’s succumbing to as yet undiagnosed engine strife. And in the end it was only the disqualification of Honda’s Rubens Barrichello that saved Ferrari’s blushes with Raikkonen scoring one point for eighth place, despite the Finn's DNF.
“It's really disappointing not to finish the race, but at least the point is better than nothing,” explained Raikkonen. “I had an engine problem, the reason for which now needs to be analysed. This result is obviously not the best start to the season but it is a very long one and we are well aware that we are capable of recovering from far worse situations than this.”
Ferrari’s general director Stefano Domenicali added: “This has definitely been a very difficult start to the season and we have got off on the wrong foot. However, we should not react in an over emotional way to this. We weren't a phenomenon before and we're not carthorses now. We have to work out exactly what happened to the engines on both F2008s and they are being sent immediately to Maranello for analysis. The whole team has not performed to our usual standard. We have to roll our sleeves up and react, as we know we can.”
With McLaren scoring 14 points at the Australian race, courtesy of race winner Hamilton and fifth-placed Kovalainen, Ferrari are now left with a substantial deficit ahead of next weekend’s Malaysian event.
i haven't seen the race cuz was to early for me, but i was shocked wen i've seen how much retirements have been, just oh my god 
All respect for Hamilton for this good race, was on first place from start to finnish, and as a Ferrari fan i'm hoping that next weekend in Malaysia too see a improved car because this was a very disappointing start of the season. 