Hamilton is in dreamland as he makes his mark in history
Jane Nottage
They may have played the Finnish national anthem at the end of the race as Kimi Raikkonen took his first win for his new team, Ferrari, bringing his total career race wins to ten, but the real star of the Australian Grand Prix was Lewis Hamilton who finished in third place in his debut Formula One race.
“I’m ecstatic. Getting into Formula One was a dream, finishing third in my first race is beyond my dreams - I’m loving it,” the McLaren driver said after the race.
It was a stunning debut for the 22-year-old from Hertfordshire. A British competitor has not finished on the podium at his debut race since 1966 when Mike Parkes finished third in France, and the air was ripe with promise of an exciting season to come.
Raikkonen led off the start line to his first pit stop on lap 18. Right behind the red car was Nick Heidfeld, the BMW driver, who had started third on the grid. Behind him was Hamilton, fourth fastest in qualifying but who jumped past his McLaren team-mate and current world champion Fernando Alonso. On lap 18, Hamilton had his first experience of leading a Formula One race and stayed there for five laps until he went in for his first pit stop.
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From the first lap until his second pit stop on lap 45, double world champion Alonso had the uncomfortable experience of being behind his rookie team-mate, who had made his intentions clear in his confident overtaking move at the first corner, a manoeuvre that Hamilton declared “a gift from God, so I took it with me.”
But on lap 45, Alonso had a better pit stop, a lightning 6.5 seconds, while Hamilton’s second stop two laps earlier had been in a comparatively slow 8.2 seconds. That settled the end result and saw Alonso in second place with Hamilton third.
For Ferrari, it was a race of mixed fortunes. Raikkonen drove faultlessly, and with a radio which failed to work, regaining the lead after both of his pit stops. However, Felipe Massa, his team-mate, who had elected to start the race from the back of the grid allowing him to change his engine after having gearbox problems in qualifying, drove well but only managed sixth place.
Hamilton was the only bright point from the British contingent. David Coulthard ploughed his Red Bull car into Alex Wurz as he tried to dive inside the Austrian and misjudged it, ending both their races. “I tried to have a go down the inside of Alex Wurz’s car at turn three, but I was too far back and screwed it up. My apologies to him for that,” Coulthard said. And Jenson Button had awful understeer problems in the first half of the race, gathered a drive-through penalty for speeding through the pit lane, and finished 15th.
Nick Heidfeld, having started in third place, finished fourth, while his team-mate, the promising Pole Robert Kubica, failed to end the race. Mark Webber finished a disappointing 13th in front of his home crowd.
Another man making his Formula One debut was Heikki Kovalainen, from Finland, in the ING Renault. But he could not match Hamilton's heroics, spinning off the track and rejoining the race three times before finishing tenth. Giancarlo Fisichella, his more experienced team-mate, finished fifth.
What a start to his career! GB
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