Kimi Raikkonen took his twentieth career victory in Formula 1 by playing the two-stop strategy to perfection to beat Fernando Alonso to the win in Melbourne.
It was a thrilling race and after all the predictions of a Red Bull domination, Sebastian Vettel could only manage third.
The defending champion’s team-mate Mark Webber was only sixth after yet another poor start. The home favourite finished behind Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
As for Adrian Sutil, this was a great comeback race for the Force India driver. He actually led the race for long periods and yet he finished down in seventh position after struggling with a lack of grip with his wore tyres at the end.
The superiority Red Bull had displayed in all the weekend’s dry running so far was never evident in the race.
Webber immediately plunged outside the top five with a poor start, and Vettel was unable to get away from the fast-starting Massa and Alonso, who both passed Hamilton on the opening lap.
Raikkonen overtook the Mercedes soon afterwards, and then closed in on Vettel, Massa and Alonso to make a four-car lead train.
All the frontrunners pitted very early to get rid of their fragile super-soft tyres.
The order among that quartet remained the same into the second stint, but they had to fight their way through those running longer, including Sutil – who had started on the medium compound and found himself in the lead by lap 15.
Vettel, the Ferraris and Raikkonen were soon on the Force India’s slipstream. They could not pass though, and Sutil was able to make his first pitstop at the same time as Vettel, Massa and Alonso made their second, bringing the Force India onto the same sequence as the victory contenders.
Alonso pitted a lap before Sutil and Vettel and was able to leapfrog both.
Sutil stayed ahead of Vettel in the pits but was overtaken into Turn 3 a lap later. Vettel could not put any pressure on Alonso however, even as the Ferrari had to battle through drivers on other strategies – including Hamilton, with whom the Spaniard had a spectacular dice before getting clear.
By this time, Raikkonen’s strategy had come into play.
He stayed out until lap 34, a couple of laps longer than the other leaders, making it clear that Lotus was going for a two-stop to their three.
That left The Iceman with a comfortable lead over Alonso and Vettel when they made their third stops, and although the Ferrari initially began carving the lost ground to the Lotus, once Alonso had used his new-tyre grip, the gap stabilised.
Raikkonen was therefore able to claim victory by 12 seconds, as Alonso pulled 10 seconds clear of Vettel.
Massa faded in fourth after a very strong first half of the race.
Hamilton was next up, having had to abandon his intended two-stop strategy and pit for a third time. Webber made a quiet recovery to sixth, just behind Hamilton, whose team-mate Nico Rosberg retired with electrical problems.
Sutil stayed with the leaders until he finally had to take on super-softs with 12 laps to the flag. They did not last as he had hoped, and Sutil had to be content with seventh, just ahead of team-mate Paul di Resta.
Jenson Button finished ninth for McLaren, while Romain Grosjean completed the scorers, holding off Sergio Perez and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Nico Hulkenberg failed to take the start due to a pre-race fuel system problem on his Sauber. Pastor Maldonado spun off at Turn 1 before half-distance, and Daniel Ricciardo retired a sick-sounding Toro Rosso.
Jules Bianchi dominated the backmarker pack in P15 for Marussia.
So a great start to the new Formula 1 season with seven different leaders, battles amongst the field and unpredictability regarding the tyres. Roll on for the next Grand Prix in Sepang for another thrilling race.
Australian Grand Prix, race results after 58 laps:
1. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1h30:03.225
2. Alonso Ferrari +12.451
3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault +22.346
4. Massa Ferrari +33.577
5. Hamilton Mercedes +45.561
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault +46.800
7. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +1:05.068
8. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes +1:08.449
9. Button McLaren-Mercedes +1:21.630
10. Grosjean Lotus-Renault +1:22.759
11. Perez McLaren-Mercedes +1:23.367
12. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:23.857
13. Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap
14. Bottas Williams-Renault +1 lap
15. Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap
16. Pic Caterham-Renault +2 laps
17. Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +2 laps
18. van der Garde Caterham-Renault +2 laps
Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:29.274
Not classified/retirements:
Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 40 laps
Rosberg Mercedes 26 laps
Maldonado Williams-Renault 25 laps
Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1 lap
World Championship standings, round 1:
Drivers:
1. Raikkonen 25
2. Alonso 18
3. Vettel 15
4. Massa 12
5. Hamilton 10
6. Webber 8
7. Sutil 6
8. Di Resta 4
9. Button 2
10. Grosjean 1
Constructors:
1. Ferrari 30
2. Lotus-Renault 26
3. Red Bull-Renault 23
4. Mercedes 10
5. Force India-Mercedes 10
6. McLaren-Mercedes 2
Next race: Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang. March 22-24.