2013 Australian Grand Prix - Report

Kimi Raikkonen got his 2013 season to the best possible start with a convincing victory at Melbourne's Albert Park circuit. Executing a two-stop strategy to perfection, the Finn resisted the pressure of a chasing Fernando Alonso, who made three pit stops, and pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel to take the win.

Heavy rain showers on Saturday afternoon delayed the majority of qualifying until Sunday morning, but Red Bull were the undoubted pacesetters in the cool, dry conditions. Vettel and Mark Webber secured the front row between them, with Lewis Hamilton showing impressive pace for Mercedes with third on the grid.

Felipe Massa and Alonso qualified fourth and fifth for Ferrari, with the second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg rounding out the top half-dozen and the Lotus drivers Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean occupying the fourth row. Jenson Button could do no better than tenth as McLaren struggled for pace, Sergio Perez qualifying a lowly 15^th in his debut for the Woking team.

As the lights went out to mark the start of the season, Vettel made a clean getaway from pole whilst Webber made his customary poor start. This allowed a fast-starting Massa to sweep into second, with Alonso moving ahead of Hamilton to take third at turn three. Raikkonen soon demoted Hamilton to fifth place in a bold overtaking move towards the end of the second lap.

Vettel was unable to get away at the head of the pack, with the reigning champion at the head of a leading quartet with the Ferrari duo and Raikkonen snapping at his heels. It became clear however that the super-soft tyres with which the majority of the field had started the race were graining rapidly; the first flurry of pit-stops arrived before the lap counter had hit double figures.

Webber, who was down to seventh after his bad start, was the first to pit on lap five for the medium compound tyre, with race leader Vettel following suit two laps later. This handed the lead to Massa, who duly pitted at the end of the lap, with Alonso doing likewise on lap nine. The Mercedes drivers opted to stay out a few laps longer, allowing Hamilton to lead the race until his stop at the end of lap 13.

Nico Rosberg made his first stop a lap later having led a lap, handing the lead to Force India returnee Adrian Sutil, who was one of a handful of drivers to begin the race on medium tyres. The German ably led the race until his stop at the end of lap 21, keeping Vettel, Massa and Alonso at bay until the Spaniard dived into the pits on lap 20 in order to try and jump his rivals.

The tactic worked, and Alonso had moved ahead of Vettel after the latter made his stop at the same time as Sutil. Massa meanwhile re-gained the lead, but Ferrari’s decision to keep him out a further two laps cost him any chance of leapfrogging Vettel, who wasted little time in dispatching Sutil after the pit-stops.

Raikkonen was now in the lead of the race, and the Lotus was clearly able to better preserve the medium tyres than the Red Bull or Ferrari. The Finn made his second stop on lap 34, raising the possibility that he would be able to pull off a two-stop strategy where his rivals would have to make three.

Alonso seized the advantage after Raikkonen’s stop, having made his way past Hamilton on lap 31 in a fantastic wheel-to-wheel battle. The Ferrari driver made his final stop of the race on lap 39, allowing Sutil to re-take the lead. Raikkonen overtook the Force India driver on lap 43, and once Alonso had done likewise it was a straight battle to the finish.

The gap stood at just over five seconds, but despite the advantage of fresher tyres Alonso was unable to close his rival down, not helped by an incident that saw him nearly run into the lapped Caterham of Charles Pic. That meant Alonso was forced to settle for second as Raikkonen took the chequered flag for the 20^th time in his career, drawing level with compatriot Mika Hakkinen in the all-time winners list.

Vettel could do no more than third, with the Red Bull’s race pace clearly lacking in comparison to its eye-catching one lap speed. Massa meanwhile lost time to the podium finishers stuck behind Sutil, and by the time of his final stop the Brazilian was too far behind to challenge Vettel and had to be content with fourth.

Sutil was on course for a fifth place finish after his last stop, but he was forced to use the fragile super-soft tyre for his final stint. This allowed Hamilton to pass his former F3 teammate at turn eight on lap 51, the Mercedes driver going on to complete the top five in a solid maiden race for the Brackley team.

Excessive tyre wear forced the Brit to change from a two-stop to a three-stop strategy, effectively costing Hamilton any chance of improving upon fifth. Rosberg may well have taken sixth behind his teammate if not for an electrical failure that ended his race at half-distance.

Webber, who lost time with an early KERS problem as well as being stuck behind an uncompetitive Button following his early first stop, cleared Sutil for sixth place several corners after Hamilton, but the 30-year-old had enough of a cushion over teammate Paul Di Resta to claim seventh place – the Scot’s eighth position rounded out an encouraging afternoon for Force India.

Button had to settle for a subdued ninth place finish in light of McLaren’s teething problems, two places ahead of new teammate Perez. Splitting the silver-and-red cars was Romain Grosjean in the second Lotus, who lacked the pace and tyre preservation of teammate Raikkonen as a result of only acquiring the latest updates to the car once the rain had arrived on Saturday morning.

Jean-Eric Vergne took twelfth place in an unspectacular day for Toro Rosso, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo retiring due to exhaust problems at his home event. Next up were Esteban Gutierrez and Valtteri Bottas, both of whom had fairly uneventful debut races for Sauber and Williams respectively, with their teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado both early casualties – the former failed to start due to fuel system issues, while the latter ended up in the gravel trap due to driver error.

Jules Bianchi had a terrific debut race, comfortably qualifying and finishing the best of the ‘bottom four’ with a 15^th place finish, ahead of compatriot Pic for Caterham and his Marussia teammate Max Chilton. The second Caterham of Giedo van der Garde rounded out the finishers, meaning that all five rookie drivers saw the chequered flag.