Lewis Hamilton Wins 2008 Australian GP

Lewis Hamilton won today’s Grand Prix of Australia with a determined drive from the pole and showed that he is ready to pick up where he left off last year.

The Australian event — being the first of the year — has become known for crashes, breakdowns and the safety-car as teams and drivers get used to their new rides and, even though it didn’t rain this year, today did not disappoint. Only seven cars were still running as the checkered flag waived and, when Rubens Barrichello was later disqualified for leaving the pits against a red light, reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen was elevated to eighth and a single point even though he had retired several laps before the end. The standard ECU and lack of traction-control and engine-assisted-breaking seemed to have caught several drivers off-guard. We can only wait to see the mayhem when we have a wet race.

McLaren and BMW were expected to perform well and they did. Ferrari was also expected to perform well but they didn’t. Williams surprised everyone with two drivers in the points — including a third-place finish for Nico Rosberg — and no one could have foreseen Sebastien Bourdais scoring two points for Scuderia Torro Rosso on his Formula 1 debut.

The first race of the season can hardly ever be used to predict what will happen in the coming months but, if the rest of the year is half as chaotic as today’s race, then the eventual championship winner will have earned his crown and then some.

Complete GP of Australia results.

Posted: Sunday, March 16th, 2008