Kimi Raikkonen Defeats Alonso and Vettel to win Australian GP

Defeating both Sebastian Vettel (Staring Position:Pole) and the local guy Mark Webber (Starting Position: Second),  Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen converted a two-stop strategy in Melbourne to claim the second victory of his Forumla One comeback. Vettle and Webber finished at no. 3 and 6 positions respectively, while Ferrari's Alonso finished at no. 2.

Earlier in the day Seb had claimed the 37th pole position of his career and when the lights went out at the start of the race the defending champion held the lead into Turn One at Albert Park. He set about consolidating the advantage, but through the first two stints the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were always in attendance. And it was Alonso who got the jump on Seb, skipping ahead in the second pit stop as he pitted a lap earlier.

It became clear that Raikkonen would not be making a third stop but as the Finn claimed his second win following his 2012 comeback – the first coming in Abu Dhabi last year – Seb held on to third place to bank 15 solid championship points.“I think you’re always a little disappointed when you start first and don’t finish first, but overall it was a good weekend for us,” said Seb afterwards. “We had a good day today with a pole and a podium – but in the race we were a little too aggressive with the tires and lost the front and the rears, while others did a little better.

“There are always areas where you can improve, but the result we got today is fair,” he added. “We didn’t see Kimi on the track, he was too quick and Fernando jumped us at a vulnerable time – but we can be happy with third.” It was a tougher race for Mark Webber. In the morning the Australian equalled his best ever qualifying result with second place but at the race start he got away badly and dropped to seventh. It wasn’t the day’s only problem, however.

“We had a few issues on the grid, getting the telemetry from the car to the pits, which wasn’t ideal in terms of the guys knowing where to set everything up for the start. We lost KERS also for the first part of the race,” he said. “It looked like we were quite heavy on the first set of tires and we weren’t that quick to challenge for the win as a team today. We had a slow pit stop [due to a front jack failure], which put me behind Jenson. After that Mark made the sort of comeback he’s famous for and climbed from 17th to an eventual sixth. “We salvaged something in the end, but that was Melbourne today and it was disappointing not to get more out of it,” he said. “It was hard to fight against others on a two-stop.”

Team Principal Christian Horner said that while it hadn’t been the perfect day, there were positives to take to round two in Malaysia next week. “Starting from the front row, third and sixth obviously wasn’t the result we were targeting, but all things considered with the way that the race panned out, I think it was the optimum we could achieve,” he said. “The Lotus seemed very light on its tires, with Kimi being able to make a two-stop race really work for him. I think in the cooler conditions today we weren’t in the optimum window with these tires, but nonetheless it was a very positive start to the championship with a podium finish and a sixth place.

“Mark made a good recovery after a difficult start and an ECU-related KERS issue in the first part of the race,” he added. “We managed to reset the system and his recovery was strong from then on. We leave this race knowing we’ve got a good car and we’re looking forward to warmer temperatures in Malaysia next week.”