2007 was the season where Kimi was supposed to get his deliverance and early signs appear that way. The ‘Iceman’ led the Australian grand prix from start to finish with a performance that would worry Ron and his two talented drivers at Mclaren. Let’s just put Kimi on hold for a second and look at the real hero of the race: Lewis Hamilton.

Mildly put, a Briton lived up to his hype for a change. If his podium finish wasn’t indication enough of the arrival of a special racer, his start was out of this world. His first ever race in formula 1 and what does he do? He looks to take the inside line in a bid to overtake the BMW in front but thats not the best part. When he finds that he does not have space going on the inside he changes strategy, swings to the outside and sweeps past the BMW and the double world champion. Perfect start to what I am sure is going to be a mightily succesful career. Leaving all the adulation I have for Alonso aside, Hamilton deserved second place today which he lost out due to team orders. Let the Mclaren talk no more of Ferrari and their team orders.

Coming back to the race winner, the flying Finn stuck to his name. He blasted off from the start and never looked back. Ferrari look ominously fast and other teams have quite a bit of catching up to do. Kimi is fast. Let no one have any second thoughts on that. He kept rattling off one best lap after another and except for a little moment of carelessness drove a flawless race. But Kimi is no schumi. He put in two blisteringly fast laps on laps 41 and 42 when his closest rival was a good 15 seconds behind him.The next race is at Sepang and it cannot get more demanding than that. If the engine blows up there he will have himself to blame. Overall an awesome performance from the Finn on his debut which earned him the distinction of being the first man to win on his team debut since Nigel Mansell did it for the Scuderia in 1989.

The reigning world champion was insipid. For a majority of the race he stuck to the back of his debutant team mate and didnt look any quicker than him. The pit strategy saved him the blushes of ending up behind his rookie team mate in the first race with the new team. Overall, it looked like he was satisfied with a podium either way. But the Mclarens have quite a bit of catching up to do if they are going to beat the Ferraris. They would have most likely fallen one more place behind if Massa didnt have reliability issues. Good drive from him to end up 6th from the back of the grid although given Ferraris pace it was expected.

Meanwhile in the BMW’s Kubica looked set to beat his team mate for the 4th place (attributable to the team strategy) until he retired out of the race. Their battle will be interesting to watch.

Oh and yes, I almost forgot. Giancarlo Fisichella beat his team mate fair and square and ended up a distant 5th but thats not saying much. Heikki Kovalainen, with his horrible qualifying and a matching drive, exaggerated quite a few things. He showed the magnitude of Hamilton’s achievement and the talent of Fisichella as a driver. But as I already said, that’s not saying much. Renault don’t look like a championship winning team this season - neither the package nor the drivers and my dream of Briatore losing it with the drivers has come true in the very first race. Only, the man at the receiving end was the rookie Renault driver and not Fisichella as I would have imagined.

Honda is a team going backwards. While a fellow Briton was setting Albert park alight, Jenson Button was brooding at the back of the pack ending up in the 15th place. Barrichello was only marginally better in the 11th place. The team’s performance was as bad as their livery and only the latter looks like something that could be improved in a hurry.

The caravan moves to Sepang - a circuit that’s  demanding both for the drivers and the machines. Ferrari and Mclaren look the only teams capable of fighting it out for the title at the moment and there is very little to choose between the 4 drivers. It’s now a matter of which team blinks first and if the past record is anything to go by then Mclraren have to keep all their fingers crossed. They would like both their drivers finishing at Sepang - one of Alonso’s favorite circuits. He has won here the last two years. Can he repeat it? Can he close down the gap with Ferrari? We’ll wait and watch.

Technorati Tags: Kimi, Australian grand prix, Lewis Hamilton, Alonso, Mclaren, Ferrari, Kubica, Giancarlo Fisichella, Heikki Kovalainen, Honda, Jenson Button