Lewis 'scone' Hamilton

British Ace, Lewis Hamilton, and his McLaren formula one team emerged from the scandals of last year to take an amazing, victory in this year's Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne's Albert Park in the early hours of this morning.

Hamilton restored McLaren pride after its reputation took a battering by last year's charges that it used technical information stolen from Ferrari - resulting in a record penalty of a $US100 million fine and the loss of all constructors' championship points. Says The Sydney Morning Herald.

Yesterday, McLaren-Mercedes and Hamilton, who lost the drivers' championship last year to Kimi Raikkonen by just a point, posted their names large and clear on a clean page devoted to the 2008 world championship.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis, a man widely ridiculed last year, was grinning from ear to ear this year especially as rival Ferrari had such a dismal start to the season. Both Raikkonen and his Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa, failed to finish, although the reigning champ showed plenty of pace in an eventful race.

This is 23 year old Hamilton's fifth F1 triumph in only 18 starts. Good start Lewis!

The Sydney Morning Herald reported: The eventful 58-lap 307.5-kilometre race - which started 90 minutes later than the usual time of 2pm to partly appease F1 nabob Bernie Ecclestone's demand for a friendlier timeslot for European television viewers - took a savage toll on cars.
Just seven of the 22 starters finished, with Hamilton joined on the podium by two Germans: Nick Heidfeld in the improving BMW and Nico Rosberg in a Toyota-powered Williams.
Hamilton, who warmly embraced Rosberg after the finish, remarked that it was the first time they'd shared a podium since their karting days in 2000.
Ominously for his rivals, Hamilton said he was on cruise control yesterday. "The car was phenomenal - a complete dream to drive compared with my car of last year," he said. "And I am twice as fit as last year. I feel fantastic. I never thought it would have been, physically, such a breeze."

Despite the oppressive 37-degree heat, Hamilton stepped from his car looking like he had the benefit of air-conditioning.

Although predicting that Ferrari would fight back in the coming races, Hamilton said he wasn't too worried about the speed the red cars showed before failing to finish. "We could have gone quicker today," he warned.

The high temperatures were expected to tax the reliability of the new F1 cars, but poor driving also contributed to the low number of finishers.

There is a ban on traction control this has made driving more challenging and viewing more exciting. The cars sliding were around noticeably and Rosberg enthused that "greater skill was required to control the 750-horsepower, V8-engined missiles without the sophisticated electronics."
"It's great for F1, more pure," said Rosberg, the son of former world champ Keke, who was a flamboyant on-the-gas racer. "It makes the cars more difficult to drive, and more mistakes are made."

The loss of traction control had made racing more demanding on tyres, brakes and the car but this was real racing. It was the mostly unsure and undeveloped drivers who made mistakes. This said, even the besy made errors that led to shunts causing carnage when the race was just seconds old

As the drivers were heading for the first corner, jostling for position, opening-lap scrimmages ended the race for five drivers including local hero Mark Webber, who retired with suspension damage. Giancarlo Fisichella, Jenson Button, Anthony Davidson and Sebastian Vettel failed to log more than one lap. That first lap, also saw the race end for Massa who slid into a spin and belted front-first into a barrier, forcing him to make a pit stop for a new snout. Later he crashed into the side of David Coulthard's Red Bull, almost flipping the Scot's car.

German Timo Glock was involved in the most worrying crash of the day when he flipped out and launched his Toyota rocketed high into the air over a huge 'bump' in the outfield. The car's wheels and suspension were torn off.

Raikkonen, forced his way third position from his original starting position of 15th, but then undid much of his brilliant early work when he tried to overtake Heikki Kovalainen. His car ending up in the gravel trap and although he recovered the damage was done and his car froze five laps from the end with engine failure. He picked up a point after officials excluded Honda's Rubens Barrichello from sixth place for leaving the pit lane on a red light.

Rookie Sebastien Bourdais, in a Toro Rosso hi as high as fourth near the finish, but was yet another with engine problems just two laps from the chequered flag. He was rewarded with seventh place and two championship points.

The cars have to be refettled for practice next Friday for the second round, at Sepang, Malaysia. (I have no idea what 'refettled' means? If someone would like to explain then please do!)

THE TOP EIGHT1. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 10 points
2. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 8 points
3. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 6 points
4. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 5 points
5. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 4 points
6. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams 3 points
7. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso 2 points
8. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1 point