Raikkonen takes victory in season opener

Raikkonen Melbourne winner 2013

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.

15 thoughts to “Raikkonen takes victory in season opener”

  1. Race winner Kimi Raikkonen has commented that this was one of the easiest yet. Autosport.com has the story.

    Kimi Raikkonen described his win in the 2013 Formula 1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix as one of the easiest of his career.

    Raikkonen came through from seventh on the grid to win in Melbourne, joining Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in a lead train after a good start, and then vaulting his rivals by two-stopping while they had to pit three times.

    “Our plan was to do two stops and though it’s always difficult in the first races to know when to stop and not go too early, we got it exactly right,” he said.

    “We followed the plan and it worked out perfectly for us. I could save the tyres and go fast if I needed.

    “It was one of the easiest races I have done to win. Hopefully we can have many more of these races.”

    Alonso was closing in on Raikkonen in the final stages, before the Finn raised his pace, set a new fastest lap and pulled away to win by 11 seconds.

    “Fernando was catching me at some points when I was taking it a bit more easy and I had some traffic, so I just wanted to make sure that if the rain came or anything I had a bit more of a gap,” said Raikkonen.

    “It was a pretty nice race, not so difficult.”

    Despite his perfect start to the season, Raikkonen underlined that Lotus could not be confident it was a title contender yet.

    “It feels good but it’s only one race so it doesn’t really change our aim or our work,” he said.

    “We’re happy with the win and there’s a lot still to do to try to win the championship.”

  2. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has admitted that he felt a little bit sad after missing out on the win but second was still a great result. Autosport.com has the details.

    Fernando Alonso said he was ‘a bit sad’ not to be able to able to win the Australian Grand Prix, but admitted second place was still a fantastic result to start the season with.

    Alonso started the first grand prix of the season from fifth position but ended up fighting for victory after his Ferrari performed strongly in race trim.

    The Spaniard was unable to match Kimi Raikkonen’s pace in the second part of the race, the Finn winning by over 12 seconds having pulled off a two-stop strategy, unique among the leaders.

    Alonso conceded the Finn was simply too strong in Melbourne.

    “It was a fantastic, fantastic race, fighting all through the race,” said Alonso. “The race was action every lap and I personally enjoyed it, obviously.

    “At the end it was a little bit sad not to be able to win the race, but Kimi was fantastic today, the Lotus as well. We have to congratulate them for a fantastic race.”

    The Ferrari driver, on a three-stop strategy, admitted that Raikkonen’s ability to stop just twice was a concern ahead of next week’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

    “It is a worry, yes,” he said. “Lotus did a very good job and Kimi was driving fantastically and could do two stops. So we have to analyse it. We have only four days to the next race and we have tough opponents.

    “But at the end I am extremely happy. We had an extremely difficult start to the season two years ago and last year and this year is very different. We are very optimistic and have an interesting season ahead.”

    Team-mate Felipe Massa completed a promising start to the season for Ferrari by grabbing fourth position.

  3. After starting on pole position, the defending world champion could only manage third in the end. Despite that, Sebastian Vettel was left feeling happy and sees no need to worry. Autosport.com has the story.

    Sebastian Vettel said he was satisfied with a podium finish in the Australian Grand Prix, insisting that Red Bull does not need to be worried about missing out on victory.

    The reigning world champion finished 22 seconds adrift of race winner Kimi Raikkonen, and he was unable to live with 2012 title rival Fernando Alonso either after starting the race on pole.

    But Vettel believes third place was a fair result for the season opener.

    “We can be happy with today,” he said. “Clearly we wanted more, when you start from pole you want to win.

    “I’m not worried, we have to admit sometimes that other people are faster. We were the third fastest car in the race today.”

    The Red Bull driver added that he was surprised to learn that Raikkonen was ahead of him, but he was pleased to make a solid start to his season after a race made tricky by tyre management.

    “After a good start and first two-three laps the tyres were falling apart,” he added. “We couldn’t go as long as other people.

    “I knew Fernando passed us at the stop, and I didn’t know where the other car [Raikkonen] had come from. I never saw him so it was a little bit of a surprise.

    “We have to be happy today. We have good points. It was good fun, tricky with tyres, but I’m happy to be on the podium.”

    Vettel spent several laps stuck behind Adrian Sutil’s Force India as his countryman went for an alternate strategy, but he doesn’t believe that made a crucial difference to his result.

    “It did not help at that stage, but it’s pretty simple – if we had the pace we should have passed him,” said Vettel.

    “I don’t think considering all the laps in the race it made a massive difference. In the end you have enough laps to even things out.”

  4. On his Mercedes debut, Lewis Hamlton finished a solid fifth. This was a great result and exceeds the expectations after pre-season testing. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Lewis Hamilton described fifth place in the Australian Grand Prix as way above Mercedes’ pre-season expectations, but also admitted he was surprised by the pace of some rivals.

    Hamilton and Mercedes ended qualifying as the ‘best of the rest’ behind the dominant Red Bulls.

    But in the race he lost out to the Ferraris and eventual winner Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus in the opening laps.

    He later had to switch from a hoped-for two-stop strategy to a three, before coming back to fifth.

    “I think it’s great, I’m really happy,” Hamilton said.

    “I think it’s way better than we probably ever expected in the first race of the season so it’s a good place to start.

    “We’re going to have to go back and try and figure out why we were losing time to other people but I think the guys have done a fantastic job for us to have the pace that we did.

    “The car was feeling really good so I don’t really know how the other guys were pulling away so quickly but we will keep pushing and hopefully we’ll get there eventually.”

    He admitted it was hard to understand how Mercedes had fallen back in the race.

    “I just don’t know where we lost out so we’re going to have to go back and look at it,” said Hamilton.

    The second Mercedes of Nico Rosberg retired early.

    “There was some cuts before and then just switched off,” said Rosberg. “It’s an electronic problem.”

  5. This was a disappointing race by McLaren standards with Jenson Button finished in ninth with his new team-mate Sergio Perez in eleventh. The team admitted it will be a long process to recovery. Autosport.com has the story.

    The Woking-based squad struggled all weekend in Melbourne, with Button qualifying in 10th position and finishing nearly a lap down on race winner Kimi Raikkonen.

    Button, who won in Australia a year ago, reckons it will take a good while for the team to return to the front.

    “There is a lot of work for us to do. It’s not something we are going to change overnight,” said Button.

    “I think we extracted everything we could today. But we are not going to suddenly be competitive.”

    The former world champion admitted even ninth position was a surprising result for him given his car’s form.

    “I didn’t expect to get that many [points] today,” he said. “I think we should be happy with how we went about the race. In a way I’m slightly surprised to have beaten a Lotus and to have held Mark [Webber] for so long.”

    He added that McLaren would have to be delighted if it managed to score a similar result next week in Malaysia.

    “I think if we came away with the same sort of points we would be ecstatic, so that really shows where we are. We are McLaren, we should be further up.”

    Button conceded, however, that two points scored did not ease the pain of seeing McLaren struggle.

    “You can look at it one way: at Silverstone last year I finished 10th and I’m one place higher here. We had bad spells last year, but I think there is a lot more for us to do to get back to the front than last year. It’s good to get a couple of points, but it doesn’t really ease the pain.”

    Team-mate Sergio Perez finished down in 11th position in his debut with McLaren, the Mexican also struggling with his car’s handling.

    “We’re lacking downforce, we’re lacking stability. It’s not only one thing,” Perez said. “I think we’ve got a lot of problems. The car is not quick enough and this is our reality.”

    He denied reverting to last year’s car was a possibility.

    “No, there is no option for that. So we have to keep our heads up. The car has the potential so we have to understand and put it together so we can be fighting for good positions.”

  6. Home crowd favourite Mark Webber made a poor start and was unable to race the leaders, meaning a sixth place finish. His Red Bull was hit with telemetry and KERS issues. Autosport.com has the details.

    Mark Webber said telemetry and KERS issues spoilt the first half of his Australian Grand Prix, but that even with a clean run he did not think Red Bull would have starred.

    After qualifying on the front row alongside team-mate Sebastian Vettel, Webber dropped back in the race and could only finish sixth.

    “We had a lot of telemetry issues on the grid and absolutely no idea what the car was doing in terms of KERS, in terms of clutch and all sorts of stuff,” he said.

    “So the guys were quite nervous with that and I was too. We didn’t really have much of an idea in terms of getting information back to the pits.

    “We lost KERS as well for the majority of the first half of the race.

    “We had a very difficult first pitstop. It was slow.

    “We ticked a lot of boxes in a negative fashion in the first half of the race. But it can go like that.”

    Red Bull dominated most of the weekend, only for Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus and the Ferraris to prove faster on race day.

    Webber acknowledged that it was not just his technical issues that left him off the podium.

    “Today, even if we’d got everything right, we were probably going to get outdone by two-stop people,” he said.

    “The race would’ve been very, very difficult for us even if we’d had a smooth day.

    “Fair play to Kimi and his guys. You’ve got to take your hat off when someone outperforms you.”

  7. Even before the race has even begun, Nico Hulkenberg was forced to retire with a hydraulic problems in the Sauber. It was a such a disappointment and the driver admitted it was a bitter blow to miss out. Autosport.com has the story.

    Nico Hulkenberg said he was bitterly disappointed after being unable to start the Australian Grand Prix because of a problem with his Sauber.

    The German had qualified in 11th place for his first race for the Swiss squad, but a hydraulic problems meant he could not make it to the grid in time.

    Qualifying took place just six hours before the start of the race after it was postponed from Saturday due to poor weather.

    Hulkenberg admitted it was especially painful not to be able to get useful mileage so early on in the season.

    “I’m bitterly disappointed about what happened today, but at the same time I’m not blaming anyone,” said Hulkenberg. “Things like this happen in racing.

    “What is particularly bothering me is the fact that I lost all this mileage today, which is so important particularly at the beginning of the season. It would have given me a lot of valuable data and information for the next races.

    “Obviously, Melbourne is not a good place for me. It was my third grand prix here and the third time that I leave this place empty handed. The only good thing is that the next race takes place next weekend.”

    Rookie team-mate Esteban Gutierrez finished his first Formula 1 race in 13th position.

  8. This was a solid race by Force India’s Adrian Sutil. The German is back in Formula 1 after a year away and did a great job, leading the Australian Grand Prix at various points. Such a shame he had to finish down in seventh. Autosport.com has the details.

    Force India’s Adrian Sutil showed he had lost little of his race craft after a year out of Formula One by finishing seventh in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday and engaging in an enthralling battle with former close friend Lewis Hamilton.

    Sutil was dropped by Force India at the end of 2011 in the wake of a night-club brawl in Shanghai that led to an 18-month suspended jail sentence and 200,000 euro ($261,300) fine for the German for grievous bodily harm.

    Eric Lux, the then-chief executive of Renault F1 (now Lotus) team owners Genii Capital, needed stitches for a neck wound caused by a champagne glass in that fracas.

    The incident caused a fall-out between Sutil and Hamilton, who had won the Chinese Grand Prix for McLaren and was celebrating at the night-club.

    Sutil branded Hamilton a “coward” in German media for declining to appear as a witness in his trial and the pair have yet to mend fences.

    The background added spice to their skirmish at Albert Park, where Sutil emerged a surprise leader in the latter part of the race when higher-profile rivals slipped back as they changed rapidly degrading tyres.

    “Leading a Grand Prix, it’s a great feeling,” Sutil, who took over Nico Hulkenberg after the German left for Sauber, told television reporters.

    “First race (and just) three weeks (since) when I know I’m back in Formula One, I just had three test days in Barcelona and it couldn’t be a better start really.

    “It showed that everything is possible and you have to believe in it.”

    DI RESTA ‘ROBBED’

    Although driving a slower Mercedes-powered car, Sutil fended off Hamilton’s works Mercedes as the Briton made a number of passing attempts before returning to the pit to change his tyres on lap 43.

    Sutil’s minor triumph was quickly extinguished, however, as Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen overtook him moments later and stormed to victory on only two changes of tyres.

    Sutil changed to a third set of tyres a few laps later but his bold challenge ended when his fast-degrading super soft tyres slowed his car in the final laps.

    His British team mate Paul di Resta also had a solid start to the season with an eighth-placed finish.

    “I feel a bit robbed of a seventh place given the way our strategy panned out and where I was in the final stages,” Di Resta said. “But seventh and eighth for the team is quite good.”

    Force India, still chasing a maiden win, slipped back to seventh in last year’s constructors championship after managing sixth in 2011, and hope to be the ‘best of the rest’ outside the five leading teams.

    Bob Fernley, deputy team principal, poured cold water on any top-five ambitions for the Silverstone-based team, co-owned by drinks tycoon Vijay Mallya.

    “No, I don’t think so,” Fernley said. “McLaren are struggling a little bit at the moment but they will come back strong.

    “What we’ve got to do is take advantage of the opportunity while they are struggling and hopefully it will give us a cushion for maybe the sixth place which is what we have got to get back again.”

  9. McLaren are not ruling out bringing back their 2012 car after a miserable start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix where Jenson Button had to use all his experience to scrap for a couple of points.

    Button, a winner at Albert Park in three of the last four years, ended up ninth on Sunday while his new Mexican team mate Sergio Perez was unable to get into the final shootout in qualifying and crossed the line in 11th.

    It was quite a comedown for the 12-times drivers’ and eight-times constructors’ champions and a marked decline from the end of last season when they won the last two races.

    Button, the 2009 world champion, said winning two points given the state of the car was about as good as it was going to get until there was a major improvement.

    “We definitely were not going to get any more points than that so yeah … we weren’t quick but I think we made the right calls considering what condition we had the tyres in after qualifying,” he said.

    “I think as a team we did a great job this weekend but we are not quick enough and there’s a lot of work we need to do to move forward and challenge the front guys. We are a long way off.”

    McLaren gambled on making significant changes to their car’s chassis for this year rather than bring out an evolution of their 2012 challenger, as other teams did in the final year of the V8 engines.

    NOT TOO PROUD

    The gamble had clearly not paid off in Australia and team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who admitted the team did not yet understand how to get the best out of the car, was asked whether they might consider a return to last year’s machine.

    “We’ll see,” he told reporters. “We are not too proud to say when we’ve got things wrong. We do occasionally and that’s just a fact.

    “But I think for the time being we’ve got to try and get some understanding and make sure we do the best job we can to go forward with this car as quickly as we can.

    “We think we can work this one out. But if we don’t, we’ll look at anything.”

    There is precedent for such a rethink at McLaren, who abandoned the car in development for the 2003 season even before it had a chance to race.

    Any switch could not come immediately, with the team racing in Malaysia next weekend, and Button was pinning his hopes on the Sepang track lending a hand.

    “We struggled here with the ride,” the 33-year-old said. “Everyone’s noticed. It’s no secret. Hopefully in Malaysia it is a smoother circuit and we’ll get rid of those issues and find a bit more performance.”

    The disappointing race results capped a tough week for the team, who confirmed on Thursday that their long-running and lucrative sponsorship deal with mobile phone company Vodafone would be ending this year.

    To compound their misery on Sunday, four of the top five in the race, including winner Kimi Raikkonen and second-placed Fernando Alonso, were former McLaren drivers.

    Newly-departed Lewis Hamilton, who finished fifth, has spent much of his time this week saying how happy he has been to join Mercedes after feeling suffocated in his years at McLaren.

    “It’s been a weekend where we’ve had to force a smile a few times,” said Whitmarsh. “It’s been tough. Tough to start a year like this.

    “You take some decisions during the winter and sometimes it doesn’t come off. It’s not pleasant being here if you are used to being a frontrunner.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  10. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa did a good job in the Australian Grand Prix, running ahead of his team-mate Fernando Alonso but his gamble on the pitstop strategy worked more in favour to the double world champion’s benefit. Autosport.com has the story.

    Felipe Massa said it was a strategic gamble from Fernando Alonso that swapped the order of the Ferraris in the Australian Grand Prix, rather than any team favouritism.

    Massa had outqualified Alonso and was running ahead of his team-mate through the first two stints.

    But before the second pitstops, Alonso came in early and was able to leapfrog both Massa and leader Sebastian Vettel thanks to a clear lap on fresh tyres.

    Massa denied this was a case of Ferrari putting Alonso on a preferential strategy and said he would not have wanted to pit when his team-mate did because in theory the tactic should not have worked.

    The Brazilian felt Ferrari needed to get at least 15 laps out of each set of tyres, whereas Alonso pitted after 11.

    “When you’re fighting with the guy at the front and then you lose two positions, you’re always disappointed,” Massa said.

    “Honestly it was a little bit too early to stop. We were planning to stop maybe three or four laps after.

    “Looking at the degradation on the tyres, it was quite high. But he took a risk and it worked.”

    Massa felt track conditions moved in Alonso’s favour.

    “The track improved and it was much better for keeping the pace with more rubber on the track, and he didn’t have any cars in front,” said the Brazilian, who ultimately finished fourth.

    “So it worked. For sure when you are behind it’s always easier to stop before and try to take the risk.

    “I am a little bit disappointed about this but overall I’m happy because the way we started the season was very, very positive.”

  11. Romain Grosjean said he was mystified by his Lotus’s handling after struggling for pace during the Australian Grand Prix.

    While team-mate Kimi Raikkonen won the season opener in commanding style, Grosjean came home in a distant 10th position despite having qualified just one place behind the Finn.

    The Frenchman said something did not feel right with his car.

    “Something felt wrong with my car, so I have to sit down with the team and analyse where the issue came from,” said Grosjean.

    “It felt so good all weekend until the race itself, but in the end the race was long and quite difficult for me.

    “We know that Albert Park can be a tricky circuit and the weather has certainly not helped today.

    “It’s been a great weekend for the team with Kimi’s win so it’s clear there’s pace in the car. Let’s hope I can unlock that pace too next weekend in Sepang.”

    Team boss Eric Boullier said Grosjean had paid the price for making a poor start.

    The team switched him to a three-stop strategy rather than the planned two-stopper, but Grosjean never managed to run in clear air.

    “Unfortunately he got stuck in the traffic and even if our car is good on the tyres if you are stuck in traffic you get more understeer and oversteer and destroy your tyres quicker,” he said.

    “It’s just bad luck after a wrong start. We changed his strategy to three stops but we could never get him out of traffic.”

    Source: Autosport.com

  12. After going quickest in both Friday’s practice sessions and setting pole position, the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel could only record a third place finish. The team blames tyres and temperature for the end result. Autosport.com has the news story.

    Red Bull team principal Christian Horner blamed the cooler than expected temperatures in the Australian Grand Prix for hampering his team’s chances of victory.

    Sebastian Vettel had gone into the 2013 Formula 1 season opener as clear favourite, having shown impressive pace in practice and qualified on pole position.

    However, the world champion was not able to look after his tyres as well as his rivals and could manage no better than third as Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus won.

    Horner reckoned that the team’s race set-up choice was incorrect for the Melbourne temperature.

    When asked by AUTOSPORT for an explanation about where the team’s early weekend form had gone, Horner said: “One simple word: tyres.

    “We just weren’t in the optimum window with the tyres today, for whatever reason. For the conditions and so on we were a bit out.

    “That became fairly apparent from lap four or five, because Seb got a good start, he built up the lead that we wanted and then it was quite clear that the car was pretty heavy on the tyre.

    “That forced us then to go down the route of a three-stop and, when you run into a bit of traffic as well, that puts more stress on the tyre.”

    Horner did not think that the tyre management issues were an inherent weakness of the RB9 but instead were simply related to the temperature.

    “I think probably the conditions were a significant factor today and we were just out of the window,” added Horner. “All things considered, third place was actually a very, very good result.

    “Kimi was the only driver/car combination that could make a two-stop really work and it was quite obvious from half distance that is what they were doing.

    “To emphasise that point, he did the fastest lap on a tyre that was older than we could have dreamt going anywhere near.

    “So I think we have learned an awful lot today and hopefully it will not be quite as chilly next weekend.”

  13. Adrian Sutil said he was amazed he could stay in the lead of the Australian Grand Prix, his first race since spending 2012 on the sidelines.

    The German, back with Force India after not racing last year, benefited from being one of the few drivers who started the race on the medium tyre compound to move into the lead after the frontrunners had pitted.

    Although he came under pressure from Sebastian Vettel, Sutil managed to stay ahead before he made his first pitstop.

    The Force India driver then went on to finish in seventh position.

    “I wasn’t expecting that but I came back to do better and it was a great feeling to be straight up there,” said Sutil. “So I just tried to keep concentrated and use my chance. I was amazed we could be competitive at the front.

    “I gained first place back after the first pitstop so the pace was really there. Vettel was probably too close running behind [me and] maybe destroyed his tyres, but the pace was there and that was great to see.

    “I knew we were going to lose a few places [in the final stint] because I was on an opposite strategy but nevertheless seventh in first race, to lead quite a lot, it showed what was possible. It’s a sign you should never give up and always believe, anything’s possible.”

    Sutil said he had to keep his emotions in check when he realised he was leading the race, but he insisted he was ready for it thanks to his new mindset in his second Formula 1 spell.

    “It was nice to see P1 on my board, no question,” he added. “But it’s very important to keep your emotions under control in the sport. Emotions are not the best to have, when you want to race you want to be successful.

    “I think I’m quite good at it now. I saw that as a big day, it was nice, but it’s not that I wasn’t feeling good in this position.

    “When I came back into the sport I thought I’m just coming back if I can do better. I programmed my mind for this kind of position. I know it’s just maybe only today, but maybe it will come again and I want to go to the front.”

    The German said he is now hungry for more.

    “We show we are absolutely strong enough to score points and I’m always aiming for my first podium,” he said, “for a long time I’ve wanted to do that.

    “Whenever it comes I want to be ready that’s a good target for this year, maybe it happens maybe it not but I will push for that.”

    Source: Autosport.com

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