Raikkonen Delivers for Ferrari

Ferrari’s 193rd victory came courtesy of its debutant Finn Kimi Raikkonen, and he made it look oh so easy. As he started from the front, team mate Felipe Massa was at the back. The Brazilian had an electronic problem in his gearbox’s management, and then Ferrari elected to change his engine and thus he moved further backwards. Overall it was a tough start to the 2007 season for Massa.

While Kimi opted for the medium-medium-soft tire choices, Massa was on a single-stop strategy and thus started on the softs as he was likely to get held up in traffic early on. This was indeed the case as he battled his way past the Red Bulls and Hondas, and after his stop on lap 29, on went the mediums. If all Raikkonen had to worry about was the lack of a radio and the odd lapse of concentration, he really didn’t have much to worry about at all.

McLaren left Melbourne leading the world championship, with 14 points to Ferrari’s 13, but however much Ron Dennis might have bleated about the possible effect of BMW’s strategy for fast-starting Nick Heidfeld the writing on the wall indicated that the Ferrari was a second a lap faster in race trim.

Raikkonen reeled off a string of fastest laps early on, his best being 1m 25.235s compared to Fernando Alonso’s 1m 26.314s and Lewis Hamilton’s 1m 26.351s. Even had the silver arrows had a clear run at the first corner, there was no way they would have challenged the red car for victory this day. On the positive side for Mclaren, the MP4-22s were reliable and quick enough to leave everyone else behind.