When the red lights went out on Sunday, March 17, at Australia’s Albert Park circuit they marked the start of the 2013 Formula 1 season. Given that rules were mostly unchanged compared to last year, the status quo in teams’ performance was unlikely to be upset.
It certainly looked that way at first, with triple world champion Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull leading the race. But it wasn’t a walk in the park for the reigning champ; far from it as strategy played a great role in the outcome of the Australian F1 Grand Prix.
While most teams followed a three-stop strategy, Kimi Raikkonen and the Lotus team decided to make just two pit stops. The 2007 champion drove superbly and preserved his Pirellis well enough to lead the race – so, even after Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso challenged him after his last pit stop, the Finn was able to not only maintain but also increase his lead, from 7.7 to 9.8 seconds, to take the chequered flag.
“It was one of the easiest races I have done to win. Hopefully we can have many more of these races”, said the winner afterwards. “Though it’s always difficult in the first races to know when to stop and when not to, we got it exactly right. I could save the tires and go fast if I needed.”
Alonso was far from disappointed for having to settle for second. Although he described his race as “not easy” and admitted that a two-stop race could have been possible, he nevertheless was satisfied at being able to challenge for the win. Moreover, with his teammate Felipe Massa finishing a solid fourth, behind Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari leads the constructor’s championship with 30 points, four more than Lotus.
“When you start from pole you want to win”, said Vettel who lost time being stuck behind Adrian Sutil’s Force India. “If we had the pace, we should have passed him… considering all the pals in the race I don’t think it made a massive difference”, he conceded. He was certainly more upbeat than Mark Webber who lost ground at the start, suffered from a faulty ECU, and crossed the finish line in sixth place.
Sutil, who also made two stops, chose the super soft tire compound for his last stint, which caused him trouble with graining but in the end, managed to finish seventh. He was followed by Paul di Resta in the second Force India, culminating in a very successful weekend for the team.
McLaren wasn’t too happy, as Jenson Button finished ninth and new signing Sergio Perez eleventh, with the former commenting that they have “a difficult week ahead of us”. On the contrary, his former teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who switched to Mercedes, qualified in third place and finished fifth, which he said, was much better than what he expected.
The Formula 1 circus is moving to Malaysia for the second event of the season that takes place on March 24. With only a week between the first two races, it will be interesting to see how things will turn out at the Sepang circuit come next Sunday.
