New Tires, a New Season and a New Pecking Order

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/sports/autoracing/18iht-prix18.html

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MELBOURNE — For a few hours before the Australian Grand Prix even started Sunday, it looked as if the 2013 Formula One season had picked up where 2012 had left off.

Sebastian Vettel, the reigning world champion, scored pole position in the first race of the season Sunday morning in his Red Bull, while Mark Webber, in the other Red Bull, followed him in second position after a rain-delayed qualifying session finished about five hours before the start of the race here in Albert Park.

It seemed to matter little who was behind these two drivers, whose team had won all the titles in the previous three years. So far ahead were they and so easy had been their qualifying, that it looked as if the race — and perhaps the season — would be a walkover, and not the close, competitive affair that winter testing had indicated it might be.

But the race, held under cool and cloudy conditions, changed everything.

The promise that the new rubber compound in the Pirelli tires would mix up the racing order came true, as drivers made several pit stops and strategy and tire wear came into play.

Kimi Raikkonen, of the Lotus team, emerged as the surprise winner in a race with several lead changes. The Finn had started seventh.

It was the 20th victory of Raikkonen’s career and his second since his return to Formula One last year after two years in rally racing. Raikkonen, 33, also won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last November. The victory Sunday was also the second victory for his Lotus team, after it changed its name from Renault two years ago.

“I had doubts; it was the first race and you don’t know how it is going to go and how the tires will be,” said Raikkonen. “I knew I had a good car, and got it through the first laps and took it from there.”

But in another way, the results were a reminder of what happened last year: The top three finishers of the race were also the top three in the championship last season, but in the reverse order. Fernando Alonso finished the race in second in his Ferrari, while Vettel finished third.

Vettel got off to a perfect start, while Webber, who has never even finished on the podium of his home race in more than a decade in the series, dropped from second to seventh, before eventually finishing sixth. The two Ferrari drivers moved from fourth and fifth to second and third, with Felipe Massa ahead of Alonso.

The suspense grew little by little, and Vettel said afterward that he felt within the first two laps that his tires were wearing out too quickly to maintain his lead. He made his first pit stop after only seven laps, and dropped to ninth.

He moved up the pack again, but by Lap 14 he was in second, stuck behind the Force India of Adrian Sutil, who was on a different strategy with his tires. The two of them made a pit stop on Lap 20, and Vettel remained blocked behind Sutil until Lap 31 of the 58-lap race. He fell behind Sutil again later in the race, and it looked to spectators as if the slower car ahead had compromised his victory.

But Vettel saw the Sutil situation otherwise.

“In the end, you have enough laps in the race to even things out,” he said. “It didn’t help at that stage, but if we had the pace, we should have passed him, and we didn’t. I was quick but couldn’t pass him.”

Little by little, two new potential winners emerged: Alonso, who was setting the fastest lap after fastest lap, and Raikkonen, who was climbing up through the pack and was on a different strategy as well, with only two tire changes instead of the three for Alonso and Vettel.

Before it was clear that Raikkonen would finish the race with only two pit stops, it looked as if Alonso could still win, and the race seemed wide open. But Alonso could never catch Raikkonen.

“There were some tricky moments, but in the end I’m extremely happy,” said Alonso. “We had a very difficult start two years ago at the start of the season, and last year as well, and this year it is different.”

“At Ferrari we had a good winter and the car is more or less what we expected,” he added. “We wanted to start the season with a competitive package, and I think the goal was achieved.”

Lewis Hamilton finished fifth in his first race at the Mercedes team, while his former teammate at McLaren Mercedes, Jenson Button, finished ninth.

“I’m happy with our result today and it’s much better than we expected for the first race of the season,” said Hamilton. “The car felt really good out there; I had a strong first stint and was able to make the supersofts last longer than most of the others. We’d planned for two stops, but converted to a three-stop strategy during the race.”

The top three drivers and Hamilton and Button are the five world champions racing in the series this year.

“It feels good, but it is only after one race, so it doesn’t really change our aim or our work for this year,” said Raikkonen when asked if he were surprised about his victory. “We are happy with the win, but we want to try to win the championship. We seemed to have a good car here and I hope it continues.”