Kimi Raikkonen took a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix – but it was British debutant Lewis Hamilton who stole the show.


While the Iceman got his Ferrari career off to a perfect start, Hamilton's remarkable drive to third place electrified Albert Park and the millions watching worldwide.


The 22-year-old repaid McLaren boss Ron Dennis’ faith in him and served notice of his intent by racing his double world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso for second place all afternoon.

The Spaniard finally prevailed after Hamilton was delayed by traffic and a slower final pit stop, but it was a close-run thing.

By finishing third, Lewis became the first driver to make it onto the podium on his F1 debut since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996.

At the start, polesitter Raikkonen made a perfect getaway while fellow front-row man Alonso bogged down and was passed by Nick Heidfeld on the run to the first corner.

Hamilton was momentarily trapped behind the fast-starting Robert Kubica, but darted around the BMW and promptly dispatched Alonso – around the outside, if you please – going into the first chicane.

Raikkonen immediately stamped his authority on the race, building a 2s lead in the first two laps to set the tone for the afternoon.

On lap seven Hamilton made his first perceptible mistake of the entire weekend, running wide at turn 12 and straying his left-side wheels onto the grass.

But he managed to drag the MP4-22 back onto the asphalt and quickly regained his composure, setting a new personal-best lap next time around.

BMW had opted to start Heidfeld on the softer of the two tyre compounds, which enabled him to keep the McLarens comfortably at bay through the opening stint.

The price of that strategy became clear on lap 15, when Heidfeld initiated the first round of pit stops and briefly dropped to seventh place.

That promoted Hamilton to second, with Alonso sitting around 1.5s further back in third.

Raikkonen continued to add to his lead with each new lap, stretching it to 15s by the time he peeled off for his first stop on lap 19.

The McLarens were fuelled for a longer opening stint than any of the other front-runners, which meant that Hamilton now joined the elite band of drivers to lead their debut grand prix.

Alonso pitted one lap before his team-mate, allowing Lewis to rejoin still in second place and with a slightly reduced deficit of 11.6s to Raikkonen.

The Finn was under no real pressure, however, and soon increased his advantage once again – helped by a second minor slip from Hamilton in turn 14.

At the halfway mark the order was Raikkonen, Hamilton, Alonso, with the BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld lapping in tandem in fourth and fifth places.

Renault's standard-bearer Giancarlo Fisichella was a distant sixth, already 42s behind the leader, while Felipe Massa – fuelled to the brim for a long first stint – had climbed from the back of the grid to seventh by the time he pitted for the first and only time on lap 30.

Kubica had his work cut out fending off Heidfeld, particularly since he had been coping with a baulky gearbox since the start of the race.

The BMW finally stuck in fifth gear on lap 37, leaving him to crawl back to the pits and park the car in the garage.

Meanwhile the man on the move was Nico Rosberg, who passed Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota for seventh place in a daring outbraking move at turn eight.

Once released from the traffic, the Williams driver took off like a scalded cat and began lapping in the high-1m26s range, matching the pace of all but the leading Ferrari.

Raikkonen, though, was in a race of his own, underlining his supremacy with a series of blistering laps, culminating in a stunning 1m25.235s on lap 41, which would stand as the day’s fastest.

By the time he made his second pit visit on lap 42, Kimi had the race well and truly by the throat and the only question was whether the Ferrari would last the distance.

The battle for second place, however, was hotting up.

Hamilton maintained a cushion of 1-1.5s over Alonso until his in-lap, when he was badly held up behind the lapped Super Aguri of Takuma Sato and the gap dwindled to virtually nothing.


With Alonso staying out for another two laps on a light fuel load, Hamilton’s second place looked vulnerable, and so it proved.

After just 6.5s stationary in the pits, the world champion rejoined comfortably ahead of his team-mate and was set fair for the runner-up spot.

Having had a couple of close shaves earlier in the afternoon as he pushed his McLaren to the very limit, Hamilton wisely toned down his driving in the final stint and settled for the final step of the podium.

Kubica’s retirement left Heidfeld unchallenged in fourth, a result that confirmed the progress BMW Sauber has made over the winter.


The focal point in the closing laps was whether Massa would have enough time to catch and pass Fisichella for fifth.

The Ferrari was lapping as much as two seconds quicker than the Renault and Felipe duly caught Giancarlo with four laps to go.

But it’s an F1 axiom that catching and passing another driver are very different things, and Massa – no doubt mindful of the championship endgame – decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

Rosberg’s spirited drive netted him two well deserved points, while Ralf Schumacher gave the somewhat beleaguered Toyota squad a better start to its 2007 campaign than many had anticipated by taking eighth place and the final point.