The ‘Lotus Beats Ferrari’ phrase sounds like a headline from the sports pages of the 1960s and ‘70’s but in fact that is the summation of the 2013 Australian Grand Prix won by Kimi Raikkonen, ahead of the fast-finishing Fernando Alonso.
But ‘deep-dive’ and you could say the intriguing race at Albert Park might best be chalked-up as another major sporting event impacted by Melbourne’s fickle weather.
Tyres were the major talking point and as the premise in development of the 2013 Pirelli tyres used in F1 was to line-up the racing, well there’s no doubt Pirelli has succeeded.
This was the summary: In the lead-up to the season-opening Grand Prix, the new rubber struggled in the cold temperatures while testing in Spain – the tyres struggling to stay warm and showing signs of stress-related tearing.
However that all changed when the F1 cars took to the streets of Albert Park in warm conditions for the first practices on Friday and again on Saturday morning. But qualifying turned into a shambles with a cold front arriving with flooding rain.
The teams returned on Sunday morning to find the temperatures had dropped considerably with wintry blasts coming from the south and intermittent showers. A special Sunday qualifying session did little to provide useful data as the track started wet then dried - and in any case all teams were using the soft compound tyres.
So the race was held in chilly conditions with the F1 teams jumping into an abyss in terms of tyre knowledge.
Lotus pinned their hopes on a two-top strategy with Raikkonen starting from fifth on the grid and changing tyres twice – once early on lap nine and again on lap 34. Ferrari went for a three-stop race plan for Fernando Alonso and at the chequered flag he finished fast, just 12 seconds behind Raikkonen’s by then short-of-grip Lotus-Renault.
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel was third with Australian team-mate Mark Webber (plagued by clutch problems at the start and then some KERS problems – again!) doing well to salvage some points with a sixth-place finish.
The teams head to Malaysia for round two of the 2013 World Championship and for sure the warmer ambient temperatures at the Sepang circuit will give a truer indication of how the season will unfold.
One thing is for sure, the McLaren team’s Australian technical guru Sam Michaels has some headaches with both Jenson Button and Sergio Perez struggling to get any pace from their cars. Button said after qualifying his McLaren has problems at “both ends” (front and rear) – he finished ninth (behind both of the Force India cars) and Perez was 11th.
Australia’s other driver, Perth’s Daniel Ricciardo lasted only 19 laps in his Toro Rosso.
The top 10 placings were:
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
4. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
5. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-Benz)
6. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
7. Adrian Sutil (Force India)
8. Paul DiResta (Force India)
9. Jenson Button (McLaren)
10. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
